$35 Billion and Counting.

A Review of the Improper Payments Information Act

What:   Oversight Field Hearing
When:   Thursday, April 15, 2004, 2:30 p.m.
Where:  The Yorktowne Hotel, Lafayette Room
              48 East Market Street
              York, Pennsylvania

On Thursday, April 15, 2004, Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA-19), Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Subcommittee on Efficiency and Financial Management, will hear from senior government officials and taxpayer advocates on the need to address the serious problem of wrongful government payments.

Each year, the Federal government makes payment errors totaling more than $35 billion.  As staggering as this amount seems, it is likely only the tip of an enormous iceberg - the $35 billion figure only takes into account only $1 trillion of our $2.4 trillion federal budget. 

"Congress, working with the agencies of the Federal government, must get a handle on payment errors.  As citizens pay their taxes on April 15th, they have the right to know that their tax dollars are being spent as intended," Platts said in announcing the field hearing.

The problem is widespread and affects nearly every federal program.  For example:

• The Department of Health and Human Services reported improper payments of more than $13 billion dollars in its Medicare program for fiscal year 2002.  HHS has only recently begun trying to estimate improper payments for its other programs, including Medicaid;
• For every $3 the IRS spends in Earned-Income Tax Credits, almost $1 is given incorrectly; and
• The Labor Department incorrectly paid $3.3 billion in unemployment benefits last year, about $400 for each unemployed person in the country.

Congress responded to this problem by enacting the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002, which requires agencies to estimate erroneous payments annually and report findings to Congress and the taxpayers.  Any program with errors exceeding $10 million annually must determine the causes and implement actions to prevent them.  They must also verify that they have the appropriate information systems in place and that agency managers are held accountable for reducing payment errors.

Elimination of improper payments has been and will remain an important oversight priority for Chairman Platts, who has held two previous hearings seeking to keep pressure on agencies to address this problem. 

"Unfortunately, a great percentage of these wrongful payments are lost and will never be recovered.  As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we owe it to our citizens to do all that we can to uncover the root causes and stop these payments from being made in the first place," Platts said.

The hearing will feature testimony from the White House Office of Management Budget, the U.S. General Accounting Office (the investigative arm of the Congress), and representatives from the National Taxpayers Union and Citizens Against Government Waste.
            
Witnesses:  The Honorable Linda Springer, Controller 
                    White House Office of Management and Budget;
                    McCoy Williams, Director, Financial Management and Assurance Team U.S. General Accounting Office;
                    Paul Gessing, National Taxpayers Union; and
                    Charlie Gerow, Chairman, Pennsylvania Chapter, Citizens Against Government Waste