Tom Latham: “Mr. Chairman, this debate really, let me assure my colleagues, is not about the attributes of the volunteers at home who…”

“Mr. Chairman, this debate really, let me assure my colleagues, is not about the attributes of the volunteers at home who do good work, I believe, for their clients who need their assistance. This debate is all about integrity. This debate is all about honesty. Let me give my colleagues a little bit of background of what happened this year. I had an individual come to my office who worked for Legal Services to explain to me, because of my position on this subcommittee on appropriations that funds Legal Services, exactly what had happened in 1997 and 1998 and exactly what had happened when we were going through the process last year of appropriating additional dollars for Legal Services. This individual, who happened to be in part working with the Inspector General at Legal Services and with the Inspector General at Legal Services, had audited five different agencies, local agencies, and found that they had overreported their cases in those five by 90,000 cases.”