Preventing Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in Tanf Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 8872, the Preventing Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in TANF Act.

Let me remind us of one of the biggest TANF fraud scandals of all time. Several years ago, former NFL quarterback Brett Favre conspired with Mississippi State officials to steal millions of taxpayer dollars meant for the State's poorest families. He stole this money to build a new volleyball court for his daughter's college.

Why did this happen? It was because under current law, the Federal Government has no authority to conduct oversight into how States spend their TANF block grant funds, which makes up roughly 80 percent of TANF spending.

That is where the biggest oversight gap exists, and this bill before us does nothing about it. Instead, it would require States to only report calculations about over- and underpayments but doesn't investigate fraud itself. By doing this, though, it empowers the administration to use these calculations to justify withholding TANF funds from certain States.

This selective process would only apply to less than 15 percent of total TANF funding. This completely ignores the 80 percent of TANF spending where the fraud is actually occurring. When Republicans brought this bill before the Ways and Means Committee, I offered an amendment to insert into the bill the bill that I had introduced with Congressman Danny Davis, the TANF State Expenditure Integrity Act.

Our bill would finally allow Federal oversight of TANF block grant funding and require States that intentionally misuse TANF funds to direct an equivalent amount toward legitimate assistance for families. Simply put, our bill would actually go after the type of fraud that Republicans claim that they care about.

If my Republican colleagues were truly interested in preventing waste, fraud, and abuse, they would have welcomed my amendment. Instead, they blocked it, but this is no surprise. Their record on fraud speaks for itself.

Donald Trump publicly defended Brett Favre and actually canceled the modest penalty President Biden was able to impose on Mississippi. He is letting everyone off the hook for this blatant fraud, and Republicans in Congress haven't said a word about it.

Not only that. Last Congress, Republicans held a hearing on TANF fraud where they actually apologized to Brett Favre. It was embarrassing, and it was shameful.

For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If House rules would have permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill.

My amendment would remove H.R. 8872's provisions empowering President Trump's continued attacks on struggling families and replace them with provisions that actually fight fraud, and that includes my TANF State Expenditure Integrity Act.

My motion to recommit would also address one of the most brazen acts of public corruption in American history: Trump's $1.8 billion slush fund and his sham settlement.

Madam Speaker, I want to emphasize what happened here. The President of the United States sued his own government and got a settlement allowing him to direct $1.8 billion of taxpayer dollars to political allies and January 6 rioters, the violent criminals who assaulted police officers and attacked our democracy.

After receiving overwhelming bipartisan backlash, the Trump administration is now claiming that it won't move forward with the fund. However, a statement is not law.

Even that is only part of the story, because no such settlement and statement has been made regarding plans to withdraw the most egregious, self-serving part of this settlement: the provision granting President Trump, his family, and his businesses total immunity from all government audits and investigations before the DOJ, IRS, or any other government agency or department.

While the administration has retreated from its plan to reward Trump's allies with taxpayer dollars, it is charging ahead with giving Trump, his kids, and his companies lifetime immunity from IRS audits and tax prosecution.

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Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, my motion to recommit would invalidate in Federal law the entire settlement agreement, including the slush fund and the immunity provision, and it would forever prohibit any similar corrupt fund in the future.

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Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

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