Chair Cassidy Delivers Remarks During Hearing on Child Care Fraud, Protecting American Taxpayers

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today's hearing on reports of fraud in federal child care funding. Cassidy is leading efforts to stop fraud in federal funding, launching a Committee task force, and demanding accountability from outgoing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Click here to watch the full hearing.

Cassidy's speech as prepared for delivery can be found below:

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will please come to order.

As a dad, there's many beliefs and values to instill in your children. One is the value of a dollar. You work hard for money, you should be wise how it is spent.

When government spends money, people in Louisiana have one request - we expect it to be used responsibly, demanding that resources go to those who need them most.

When the government wastes our money-or worse, someone steals from the government, - we are mad and feel ripped off.

That's what appears to be happening in child care programs and other safety net programs right now. And that's what we're talking about today.

Minnesota was a wakeup call to a problem that runs deep.

Minnesota's Office of the Legislative Auditor has been warning about fraud since 2018. And yet, Minnesota has consistently had a high rate of misspent dollars. 1 in every 10 dollars spent on child care in Minnesota is stolen or misused. Billions more in federal dollars has been stolen from nutrition, housing, autism programs, Medicaid programs.

While Minnesota was a catalyst to consider the problem - I want to be clear that this isn't just a Minnesota problem, it isn't just a California problem, a New York problem, an Illinois problem, or a Colorado problem. This is an American problem.

Anger is not enough; the American people are demanding action and accountability. We must stop the fraud, protect taxpayers, and put children and families first. As Chairman, I will not tolerate waste, fraud, and abuse that steals money from honest, hard-working Louisianan families.

We can and should learn from what is working in some states. Texas has an error rate, which is to say a rate of misspent dollars, of 0.4 percent. Again, compare that to Minnesota's 9 percent! Or how about Oregon's 35%!

Louisiana is around 6 percent and there are regular unannounced inspections of child care providers. We share how well each provider performs with parents online. In the past, we saw improvement in combatting child care fraud by verifying enrollment with biometric verification of attendance.

Unfortunately, that system was later eliminated and the error rate has gone up some. But, this is the type of accountability that every state should adopt. It's good for parents, it's good for children, and it's good for the taxpayer.

The Child Care Development Fund is only able to serve about 1.4 million low-income working families out of the 8 million eligible. Every dollar misspent is a dollar not going to children and working families, which by the way are the constituents we as Senators are obligated to serve.

And by the way, when we say federal funds, we are talking about your money - your neighbor's money, your family's money. Money that we could have used for a number of things but that you were told was going to help working families afford child care. That is noble, but it ain't happening. Where is that money going? That's the question.

We've got to clean up this mess and do it fast. That why this committee launched a Fraud Task Force last month to expose fraud around the country and to act.

I thank Senators Moody and Marshall for leading the Health Task Force, Tuberville and Husted for leading the Education Task Force; and Mullin and Scott for leading the Labor and Pensions Task Force.

Both sides and past Administrations have failed to curb the fraud. The American people are demanding action. The only way this fraud stops is if Congress, not the Administration, enacts new laws. Specifically, the Members of this Committee must lead.

In the coming weeks, I will be putting forward proposals to strengthen the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act to stop the fraud. Today's hearing is an important step in refining those solutions.

I look forward to hearing from our witness, Dr. Paula Polito, owner of the Beary Cherry Tree Child Center, from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana about how Louisiana has succeeded in efforts to combat fraud. Thank you for being here doctor, and it's good to see you again.

Mr. Wilde can speak to the fraud that plagued Wisconsin's child care system previously and the successful efforts he led to overhaul oversight efforts.

I thank our witnesses for being here. We need to ensure children receive the child care that we are paying for and stop fraudsters from stealing money from taxpayers. That is something Republicans, Democrats, and everyone should support. With that, I recognize Senator Sanders.

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