It is going to be a challenge. I will not try to softball that one.

Do you support legislation that would allow for the rehiring of annuitants without their incurring a financial penalty?

My concern about having two different methods of measuring job creation or the number of jobs saved is that it could serve to undermine the public's confidence in the credibility of the numbers.

Double-counting types of situations, because the one you were describing, an argument could be made, well, did that second job then kill 50 jobs.

I am fearful that a lot of people will fall for that scam because--and what I think was an error in policy--we did do these one-time checks a year or so ago of $300 or $600 to taxpayers.

Striking the right balance between speed and caution has been a challenging task.

These funds must be disbursed quickly to meet the goal of stimulating the economy.

It would indeed be unfortunate and ironic if money is lost to waste, fraud, and abuse because States had insufficient funds to hire the necessary contracting officials, auditors, and oversight employees.

I think a lot of the work that you are doing, while extremely worthwhile, is probably the tip of the iceberg.

As much as 7 percent of the Recovery Act funds may be lost to fraud and abuse.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one final question for me.

It is critical. I am very pleased that Maine has the opposite situation of Connecticut.

Preventing fraud in the execution of stimulus funding is a key element to the ultimate success of the Recovery Act.

the success of the pilot program, in our view, is also very important to striking the right balance, as Senator Collins was talking about, between accountability and getting the money out quickly.

This mistake may cost taxpayers about $2.5 million and it could easily have been prevented.

It becomes difficult, and the problems are obvious as you try to measure this.

I think we need to more aggressively look at the internal controls in the Federal Government as well as at the State and local levels.

While there are obvious issues with Congressional oversight, accountability, and transparency with the creation of new czar positions within the Executive Office of the President, that is a totally different issue from Senate-confirmed…