John Larson

On Friday, May 19th 2017, I was not present for rollcall votes 267 and 268. If I had been present for these votes, I would have voted: ``Yea'' on rollcall vote 267 and ``yea'' on rollcall vote 268. ____________________

I can't thank you enough as well as both the cooperation that we have received today from the IRS and Treasury.

This is something that impacts people, and now it is estimated that more than 30,000 people in Connecticut will be impacted by this.

I have nothing but great respect and admiration for you and the job that you have done.

I want to thank you and Mr. Lewis for this opportunity.

I think getting more and more data and analytics out about the impact of the different tax proposals is critical.

This is a generational opportunity for all of us.

As Rich Neal has spoken, we are very concerned about what is happening to the middle class.

We don't want to see a return to that.

We want to make sure that we get this right.

On Wednesday, May 3rd 2017, I was not present for rollcall vote 246. If I had been present for this vote, I would have voted: ``Nay'' on rollcall vote 246. (By unanimous consent, Mr. Hensarling was allowed to speak out of order.) Moment of…

And for any Federal, any employee or any conspiracy that exists, they deserve the maximum amount of punishment.

It is not replacing employees due to loss, due to attrition, has severely restricted overtime, closed offices and reduced the hours that remaining offices are open to the public.

What she observed then is that if Congress wished to reduce errors, the error rate further, it needed to stop squeezing the budget of the Social Security Administration.

Even with this built-in culture, with the growth rate of Social Security, there are over 61 million beneficiaries now.

I think the Chairman needs to be applauded, as does the Committee, for addressing the whole issue of fraud.

At the same time, the Social Security Administration's basic operating budget has fallen by 10 percent since 2010 after adjusting for inflation.

I would like to submit for the record an LA Times article on the Trump proposal to eliminate the Social Security payroll tax and why that could be extraordinarily problematic in terms of our ability not only to fight fraud, but also, I…

I think it is important that we catch up on the fraud and we continue, as this Committee and this Chairman has led, to do so.

Anyone who messes with the sacred trust of the American people in the program and government that they rely on the most deserves the maximum amount of punishment that the law can provide.

We owe the 61 million Social Security beneficiaries efficient administration and our most robust efforts to combat fraud, waste, and abuse wherever it exists.

Social Security has many more beneficiaries today than it did in 2010.

On Thursday, March 9th, 2017, I was not present for roll call votes 138 and 139. If I had been present for this vote, I would have voted: ``Nay'' on roll call vote 138, ``Nay'' on roll call vote 139. personal explanation

This is an insurance program, an insurance program. People talk about this as though it is an entitlement.

The last time we really constructively as a Congress really looked at Social Security in any meaningful and significant way was in 1983.