FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Contact: (202) 225-1025
April 13, 1998
No. HR-11
Congressman E. Clay Shaw, Jr., (R-FL), Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) fraud and abuse. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, April 21, 1998, in room B-318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 3:00 p.m.
Oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only. Witnesses will include representatives of the Social Security Administration (SSA), the SSA Office of the Inspector General, and the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.
BACKGROUND:
In a 1997 report, GAO added SSI, which provided more than $25 billion to 6 million aged, blind, and disabled recipients in 1997, to its list of government programs at "high risk" for waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. The problems uncovered by GAO are wide-ranging. One major problem is the ability of applicants to divest their assets in order to qualify for SSI benefits. Another problem is fraud by those who receive benefit checks at U.S. post office boxes but actually reside in other countries. Another problem is that many SSI overpayments either go uncollected or are collected at a very slow pace, preventing or delaying the collection of hundreds of millions of dollars incorrectly paid to beneficiaries.
Congress solved some of the problems identified by GAO in the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996" (P.L. 104-193). For example, Congress created a "bounty" system of cash incentives for local prisons that report lists of inmates for matching against SSI rolls so that prisoners could be disqualified from receiving further SSI benefits. Many of the proposals under review by the Subcommittee expand on such efforts to ensure both that qualified recipients receive the benefits they are due and that taxpayers are protected from attempts to defraud or otherwise abuse the SSI program.
In announcing the hearing, Chairman Shaw stated: "SSI is a program that has been wide open to abuse for too long, costing literally billions of dollars in overpayments and losses due to outright fraud. This program is too important to too many deserving recipients for that to continue. I invite everyone who wants to protect the integrity of this essential program to work with us to develop effective ways to cut out the fraud so we can better serve deserving beneficiaries as well as taxpayers."
FOCUS OF THE HEARING:
The hearing will focus on fraud and abuse involving the SSI program. A major goal of the hearing will be to discuss possible legislative proposals to prevent continued fraud and abuse.
DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:
Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit at least six (6) single-space legal-size copies of their statement, along with an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in ASCII DOS Text or WordPerfect 5.1 format only, with their name, address, and hearing date noted on a label, by the close of business, Tuesday, May 5, 1998, to A.L. Singleton, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their statements distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may deliver 200 additional copies for this purpose to the Subcommittee on Human Resources office, room B-317 Rayburn House Office Building, at least one hour before the hearing begins.
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:
Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be typed in single space on legal-size paper and may not exceed a total of 10 pages including attachments. At the same time written statements are submitted to the Committee, witnesses are now requested to submit their statements on an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in ASCII DOS Text or WordPerfect 5.1 format. Witnesses are advised that the Committee will rely on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.
2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
3. A witness appearing at a public hearing, or submitting a statement for the record of a public hearing, or submitting written comments in response to a published request for comments by the Committee, must include on his statement or submission a list of all clients, persons, or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.
4. A supplemental sheet must accompany each statement listing the name, full address, a telephone number where the witness or the designated representative may be reached and a topical outline or summary of the comments and recommendations in the full statement. This supplemental sheet will not be included in the printed record.
The above restrictions and limitations apply only to material being submitted for printing. Statements and exhibits or supplementary material submitted solely for distribution to the Members, the press and the public during the course of a public hearing may be submitted in other forms.
The
Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with
disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please
call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event
(four business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to
special accommodation needs in general (including availability of
Committee materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the
Committee as noted above.