It’s the middle of tax filing season. Right about now many people might question where their hard-earned money goes when it gets to Washington.
We live in a law-and-order society. We believe in the public good that comes from essential services financed by tax dollars. Among others, the list includes national security, strong military, medical research, criminal justice system, public safety, food and drug inspection, roadways and schools.
Unfortunately, those who complain about paying taxes have plenty of reasons to gripe. That’s because waste, fraud and abuse continue to present enormous challenges to fiscal integrity when it comes to government spending.
Just consider the recent government audit that exposed poor management with the Transportation Security Administration’s effort to recruit airport screeners. In just 18 months, a federal contract increased from $104 million to more than $740 million dollars to place screening agents in airports across the country. Abuses like this give new meaning to sky-high.
From the Pentagon to Medicare and the new Homeland Security Department, it seems no program in the federal bureaucracy is immune to those who milk the Federal Treasury like a cash cow.
For the lawmakers in Congress who control the purse strings, it is our Constitutional responsibility to conduct rigorous oversight. From my committee assignments in the U.S. Senate, I scrutinize government spending with a fine-toothed comb.
Nearly 20 years ago I helped expose the disregard for tax dollars at the Pentagon. Many Iowans may recall the ridiculously high prices paid by the Pentagon for hammers and toilet seats.
In the last two decades, I have learned valuable lessons in my effort to expose financial mismanagement and outright fraud against the federal government. It takes constant vigilance by hard-nosed lawmakers, old-fashioned journalistic snooping by members of the media and courageous do-gooders working on the inside to unearth waste, fraud and abuse. I’m committed to continued work as a taxpayer watchdog in Washington.
In fact, my amendments to the False Claims Act will celebrate 20 years on the books later this year. In 1986 I helped secure enactment of this major fraud recovery and suppression tool. It’s turned out to be one of the most effective measures ever used to protect hard-earned tax dollars. What we did was to update a law and strengthen whistleblower provisions known as qui tam, which translates from Latin as “he who on behalf of the king as well as for himself sues in this matter.” Qui tam allows private citizens to sue wrongdoers for fraud on behalf of the federal government. By choosing to come forward at great personal, professional and financial risk, whistleblowers have a lot to lose. If a qui tam lawsuit succeeds, the whistleblower may keep a share of the award or settlement and the rest goes to the Federal Treasury.
The False Claims Act was first enacted in 1863 when Abe Lincoln sought to empower private citizens to expose wartime profiteers from ripping off the Union Army. Long past the Civil War, the False Claims Act served the government well for eight decades. Unfortunately, during World War II the laws were watered down.
As a result, the False Claims Act languished. At least until I led a bipartisan charge in the 1980s to put the teeth back in the law and provide better incentives and protections for whistleblowers.
The facts speak for themselves. Since 1986, the False Claims Act is credited for recovering $12 billion to the Federal Treasury. And that’s not even its greatest legacy. The False Claims Act is widely known for being an even greater deterrent to fraud.
In what started out as an effort to zero in on fraud against the Pentagon in the mid ‘80s is now casting an even wider net that reaches across the federal government. In particular, the False Claims Act is a significant anti-fraud tool that helps keep tabs on the exploding growth in health care dollars paid out by the Federal Treasury.
As Iowans file their tax returns this season, I’ll continue to work in Washington to stretch those hard-earned tax dollars and make sure the money is spent as intended. That means keeping tabs on corporate America’s commitment to pensioners, charitable organizations’ compact with their donors, and the federal government’s obligations to its citizens. Good governance boils down to full transparency and holding wrongdoers to account. Without such integrity, it’s impossible to hold the public trust.