Opening Statement of the Hon. Wally Herger, a Representative in Congress from the State of California,
and Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Resources

Hearing on Fraud and Abuse in the Supplemental Security Income Program

July 25, 2002

The nation’s Supplemental Security Income program, commonly called SSI, provides a vital safety net for our nation’s most needy disabled and elderly individuals.  Thanks to SSI, an elderly widow has the resources to stay in her own home and a parent gets help in caring for a severely disabled child.

Nearly 7 million individuals received monthly SSI benefits totaling more than $33 billion last year.  Billions more are spent on health and other supports for SSI recipients.  Unfortunately, there has been too much fraud and abuse in SSI, undermining public support for a program that is critical for so many truly needy individuals.

This Subcommittee has worked diligently on a series of bills to prevent abuse and recover misspent funds.  Many hardworking individuals helped.  I want to thank the Social Security Administration, and especially the Office of the Inspector General, along with the U.S. General Accounting Office, for their help.  Working together, we developed changes that are restoring SSI’s integrity while protecting deserving recipients.

Here’s one example.  Back in 1994, GAO reported that, after years of rapid growth, an estimated 250,000 Americans were getting disability checks due to drug addiction or alcoholism.  Few ever got off SSI, unless you counted the most common reason for ending benefits – death.  We were literally paying people to drink themselves to death.

So in 1996 we ended the drug addicts and alcoholics part of the program and used some of the savings for more drug treatment, where it might help individuals overcome their addictions.

We’ve made progress on other examples of waste, fraud, and abuse, including keeping prisoners and fugitives from collecting benefits.  And in 1999 this Subcommittee passed a series of changes to better recover SSI overpayments, and used the savings to improve programs for teens aging out of foster care.

Overall, we have saved taxpayers and deserving beneficiaries literally billions of dollars.

Despite these tremendous strides, however, GAO will testify today that SSI remains on its list of programs at high risk of waste, fraud, and abuse.

More importantly, they and our other witnesses – representatives of the Social Security Administration, the Social Security Advisory Board, the Social Security Office of the Inspector General, and the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities – will provide us with insight and recommendations on steps to better protect beneficiaries and taxpayers.

I would like to extend a special welcome to the Chairman of the Advisory Board, our former Ways and Means colleague, the Honorable Hal Daub.  We look forward to all of our witnesses’ testimony on this important topic and their continued help in making sure that SSI benefits are going to their intended beneficiaries.