Uncovering Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

UNCOVERING WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE -- (House of Representatives - June 02, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to discuss what my colleagues have been discussing here today: issues of waste, fraud, and abuse. But, before I do, I would like to make one statement. I operated as a trial judge in Texas for about 21 years, and we had rules in the court at that time that if the opposing counsel for any purpose attacked or impugned the honesty or integrity of another member or got vicious and attacked them in any form or fashion, we could correct them; and if they continued in that type of style, we could actually fine them. It has been my limited experience here in Congress that if we were able to allow the Chair to issue such fines, we could probably balance the budget here in Congress without much problem at all. And I think we have seen a lot of that here today with the use of some terms like "liar" that I have heard here used today. I just as an aside wanted to say that.

Back about a year-and-a-half ago, I was in a meeting in Houston, Texas. As I said, I have been a trial judge. Before the meeting, I had an undercover Department of Public Safety officer come to me at this meeting and say he would like to talk to me in private for just a minute; and I went in and talked to him.

He said, Judge, I want to tell you about something. There is something going on here in Houston that I think you ought to know about it. There is a gang of Middle Eastern folks that are stealing baby formula from our local supermarkets and selling it to the WIC program.

Well, my first reaction would be the reaction I would think of most Americans, and that was, gee, whiz. I mean, do you guys not have anything better to do than go out and investigate shoplifting? But knowing that he was part of an undercover task force, I figured he had something to say, and I said, well, how big a deal could that be, Lieutenant?
He said, well, Judge, here in Houston it is about $1 million a month.

And I said, good Lord, $1 million a month for baby formula?

He said, yes, sir; and, you know, it is not against the law to possess baby formula. It is against the law to possess narcotics and dangerous drugs, but it is not against the law to possess baby formula. So if we catch a guy with a trunk load of baby formula, we cannot do anything to him. But we know what he is doing. He is stealing this formula, and he is selling it to the WIC program to the tune of about $1 million a month. In fact, the estimates are that in Texas alone it is $1.5 million a month Statewide.

He said, we have followed this group to Phoenix, Arizona. We have followed them to New Mexico, although I do not remember which town in New Mexico; to California, San Diego and Los Angeles. They have an operation in each one of those towns, to the possible tune of $30 million a month Nationwide. I was shocked.

And he said, we also have evidence that this is being used to fund terrorism.

Now when you want to talk about waste, fraud, and abuse, how much more fraudulent could it be than stealing from the mouths of our children and the poorest of our Nation, taking away a program that was designed to help poor mothers feed their babies, stealing from them, and letting a government agency be a fence for that purpose?

I asked him, I said, have you talked to the people in the WIC program? He said, yes, I have explained to them that they should not be buying this stuff off the street, that buying it off the street was fencing for criminal activity.

[Time: 20:00]

And he said, "Well, they do not see the seriousness in it."

Mr. Speaker, those of us who have been in criminal justice in this country have sent people to the penitentiary for a whole lot less than stealing a million dollars a month. I, for one, have done that on several different occasions.

It shocked me so that I am proud to let my colleagues know that in H.R. 3873 I got an amendment which now requires that the WIC program have certified vendors that they buy this product from. But when our government has risen to the size that it has risen, that it misses that kind of waste, fraud, and abuse; we have got a serious problem. And yet the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, want to raise our taxes to grow a bigger government, a bigger government that in many instances the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.

For that reason, I honor the members of Waste Watchers for the hard work they are doing trying to be watch dogs.

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Feeney). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) is recognized for 5 minutes.

(Mr. HINCHEY addressed the House. His remarks will appear hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized for 5 minutes.

(Mr. PENCE addressed the House. His remarks will appear hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) is recognized for 5 minutes.

(Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California addressed the House. His remarks will appear hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.)

END