Education & the Workforce Republican Efforts to End Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

 

July 11, 2006

 

            Since Republicans began leading the House of Representatives in 1995, efforts to confront waste, fraud, and abuse within federal programs have been front-and-center in the Party’s legislative agenda.  More than a decade later, this priority remains unchanged.  In the 109th Congress, the House Education & the Workforce Committee has taken the lead in uncovering and halting waste, fraud, and abuse in federal education and labor programs.  From ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly to ensuring that existing federal programs operate as effectively and efficiently as possible, the Committee counts itself among the House’s leaders in reform.

 

Improving Financial Management in Head Start Programs.  Responding to troubling reports of financial mismanagement in many local Head Start programs, the School Readiness Act (H.R. 2123) will require all Head Start grantees to publish an annual report detailing how money was spent, the sources from which funds were received, and how the agency has performed in terms of meeting the requirements of the law.  An independent financial audit also will be required annually. (Passed by House)

 

Reducing taxpayer subsidies to college lending companies.  Building on Republican efforts to protect students and taxpayers, excess lender subsidies known as “floor income,” any rate of return higher than the guaranteed minimum, have been eliminated by the Deficit Reduction Act (P.L. 109-171).  In addition, the 9.5 percent minimum rate of return, which was previously available to some lenders but was closed off through Republican efforts in 2004, will be eliminated permanently and comprehensively. (Signed into law)

 

Protecting Pension Plan Assets from Being Used for Political Purposes.  In early 2005, former Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman and current House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Employer-Employee Relations Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson (R-TX) urged the U.S. Labor Department to investigate reports of labor union leaders threatening to withdraw pension plan assets from firms that demonstrated support for Social Security policies of the Bush Administration.  The Labor Department responded, saying that – indeed – such practices likely violate the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and cautioned labor leaders to ensure its affiliates nationwide were aware of this fact.

 

Evaluating Existing Federal Math and Science Programs.  Before blindly throwing billions at scores of new federal math and science programs in the name of “competitiveness,” the Deficit Reduction Act (P.L. 109-171) established a body to identify, evaluate, and recommend ways to integrate more than 200 federal math and science programs already on the books.  A report submitted by this Academic Competitiveness Council will allow Congress to determine how to better coordinate these programs across the federal government, ensuring funds are being spent effectively and the programs themselves are operating efficiently. (Signed into law)

 

Building on the Success of Welfare Reform.  A key reason for the success of the 1997 welfare reform law was its focus on work rather than entitlement.  The Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act (H.R. 240) strengthens work requirements even more, while still allowing for significant education and training time.  Specifically, the bill asks welfare recipients to engage in work activities for the traditional 40 hours a week, up from the current 30-hour requirement, 16 of which could be dedicated to education or job training. (Passed by Committee) 

 

Investigating Potential Mismanagement in Federal Poverty Programs.  Former Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman and current House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Education Reform Subcommittee Chairman Mike Castle (R-DE), and subcommittee Vice-Chairman Tom Osborne (R-NE) in 2005 asked the independent Government Accountability Office to look into the financial oversight structure of the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program, a federally funded initiative to combat poverty in local communities.  States are charged with providing some oversight of CSBG programs, and the GAO report – delivered to the Committee in July 2006 – confirms concerns about the effectiveness of that oversight structure and the possibility that fraud, abuse, or mismanagement could occur due to weaknesses in financial controls and program management, similar to documented mismanagement in local delivery of Head Start services.

 

Preventing Fraud and Abuse in Student Aid Programs.  In order to ensure that the billions of taxpayer dollars invested annually in federal student aid programs are reaching those truly eligible for the aid, the Deficit Reduction Act (P.L. 109-171) includes an IRS data match system.  This system will verify financial aid information to make certain student financial aid is reaching those who need it the most, so federal funds are not wasted or misused. (Signed into law)

 

Streamlining Federal Job Training Programs.  So federal job training programs can operate even more efficiently than they already do, the Job Training Improvement Act (H.R. 27) streamlines existing programs to eliminate service duplication and reduce program bureaucracy.  Specifically, three federal funding streams targeted to similar populations are combined into one, enabling better program administration at the state and local level. (Passed by House)

 

Safeguarding Privacy of U.S. College Students.  The College Access & Opportunity Act (H.R. 609) explicitly prohibits the creation of a Student Unit Database, as proposed by the U.S. Department of Education.  Such a massive federal database would compile and maintain personally identifiable information about individual college students, including Social Security number, address, date of birth, attendance record, and financial information. (Passed by House)

 

Repealing duplicative, expired, and/or unnecessary college programs.  To ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent most wisely, the College Access & Opportunity Act (H.R. 609) repeals nine current programs previously authorized under the Higher Education Act that are duplicative and/or unnecessary or have expired and are no longer needed. (Passed by House)

 

Demanding accountability in federal college access programs.  The College Access & Opportunity Act (H.R. 609) establishes performance measures for the TRIO federal college access programs.  This system of increased accountability will foster more competition and allow quality TRIO programs to demonstrate and be rewarded for their success. (Passed by House)

 

Increasing public access to information about college costs.  The College Access & Opportunity Act (H.R. 609) establishes an “apples-to-apples” College Affordability Index (similar to the Consumer Price Index) for parents and students to track college cost spikes from one institution to the next.  This balanced tool will enable parents and students to become better consumers of higher education and will also allow U.S. taxpayers to know which institutions receiving federal dollars are most prone to hyperinflation in tuition and fees. (Passed by House)

 

Avoiding Unnecessary Bureaucracy in Reimbursing Gulf Coast Schools.  An innovative electronic reimbursement proposal that would have enabled parents and schools to bypass government bureaucracy in getting federal aid more quickly was killed by Education & the Workforce Committee Democrats in the fall of 2005.  This proposal – known as Family Educational Reimbursement Accounts – would have allowed Gulf Coast parents to use individual PIN numbers to enroll their students in new schools if they had been displaced.  This would have sped funds from the federal Treasury electronically and directly to schools, avoiding the type of state-level bureaucracy many blame for today’s slow delivery of school funding. (Defeated by Committee Democrats)