Chuck Grassley

I am very glad to be here not only to thank you for holding this hearing, but also to recognize President Skorton, who is a friend of mine.

What is the basis of your statement that $14 billion were saved? Is that contained in any report or some other source that you could direct us to?

Would you make recommendations along the lines that grantees found to have violated grant program requirements should be excluded from participation in favor of those who followed the rules?

Wouldn't you agree that any recipient under this law and any grantee has a duty to ensure that all expenses are allowed under the program?

As Congress considers reauthorization we need to take a strong look at rooting out waste and abuse in the grant program.

If my question implied that I think that this Act should not be reauthorized, I hope you did not read the question that way.

Well, as Senator Grassley knows--along with him I am very involved in the foster care system--this is a broken system.

Should Congress consider streamlining these data requirements to provide uniformity?

Your testimony also outlines how there are 11 various authorizing statutes for grant programs that address domestic violence.

Let me tell you, Senator Landrieu and I appreciated being on there because we work in the area of foster care, and his program probably got us more attention than two Senators could have got the attention of.

This law that we are reviewing today is an important law that has helped a countless number of victims.

Obviously, I want the law to be reauthorized.

There is nothing you said about the need for the law that I would disagree with.

Why is the Recovery Act working group necessary given the existence of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board?

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board was created as part of that law to oversee how the funds were spent to ensure that they were not subject to fraud, waste and abuse.

President Obama's stimulus program had a lot of taxpayers' money into it, into various projects and programs across the country.

I thank you, Madam Chairman, for letting me go ahead of your second round.

I am concerned that by not having a formal budget, expenditures for travel could be unnecessarily high.

I have a series of questions. I do not know if we will get through all of them, but I would kind of like to get a handle on budget and financial control.

Combating fraud was on Congress' radar before the creation of the task force.

This task force was created in November of 2009. Senator Leahy and I wrote the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act of 2009, signed into law May of 2009.

Today's hearing provides us the opportunity to fulfill our constitutional duty and a continuing basis to conduct oversight.

We established a record that was able to help us get the false claims bill passed, and that bill, as you know, has brought $28 billion back into the Federal Treasury.

I congratulate you on your leadership of this committee.

I assume that we are now on the Cole nomination? The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. We are on the nomination.