Let me say that, again, these programs saved lives.

I am proud that we included those provisions in the CARES Act precisely to ferret out fraud, to try to prevent the waste and abuse.

I have never seen more financial fraud and abuse of this system than I saw in the previous administration under Donald Trump.

Our job on this committee is to defend our democracy and our basic institutions, to protect our rights as Americans.

The traditional language of waste, fraud, and abuse does not quite capture the confidence games in organized criminal artifices.

Our committee's purpose is to ensure that government is effectively delivering on its promises to the American people.

The bottom line here is that expanded unemployment insurance... allowed millions of people to fill in financial gaps.

I was hopeful for an opportunity to consider together how we can identify schemes of fraud and self-enrichment.

In March 2021, we exposed how the Trump administration's reckless mismanagement of small business relief programs led to nearly $84 billion in fraudulent loans.

Much of it--most of it--we are able to go along with, but we definitely have a few issues that we wanted to raise today.

I think this committee room and the Halls of Congress need to be filled with the voices of regular Americans.

It is our duty to rise to the occasion and conduct oversight and provide accountability on this crucial subject.

Let us live up to the legacy of this committee. Let us show the American people that we hear them and we are fighting for them.

This is precisely the way to do it. It protects equal access to the right to testify.

No one should be prevented from performing their duties on behalf of their constituents due to unavoidable and uncontrollable health conditions.

This amendment would simply allow remote participation in committee activities for members when in-person participation would potentially compromise the member's health.

I am offering the amendment to strike the provision of rule 7 granting the Chair the unilateral discretion to allow committee members to participate in the hearings of subcommittees on which they are not members.

I feel the obligation to stand in defense of this subcommittee, which I was the first and I guess the only chair up until this point.

I am glad that we are, indeed, going to begin on COVID-19 relief and some abuses that have taken place under that program.

Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. It means a lot to me.

the rules work best when they work symmetrically and fairly for everyone.

I rise in support of the gentleman's amendment.

the only problem with the statement you just made is that it does create a change in introducing asymmetry into the rules.

Our job is to make government and America serve not as an opportunity for greed and self-enrichment, not as a violator of the rights and liberties of the people, but rather as the protector of the rights and liberties of the people.

I just want to briefly return to something you mentioned at the start of the meeting.