Deborah Koff Ross: “Actually, my office received a call today from the GAO, and I have got some good news. We have been saying, I have been…”

“Actually, my office received a call today from the GAO, and I have got some good news. We have been saying, I have been saying, that the GAO reported that 19 of 24 Federal agencies were not in compliance with all Federal accounting audit standards and could not fully explain how they had spent taxpayer money appropriated by Congress. I am here to correct that. The GAO convinced me today that that statement is not true. Here is what they tell me is true: that the GAO reports that 18 of 24, not 19; 18 of 24 major Federal agencies have such bad financial systems that they don't even know the true cost of running some of their programs. I don't really see the difference, one sounds about as bad as the other to me, but the good news is we no longer have 19 of 24 major Federal agencies that can't produce a clean audit. Instead, we have 18 of 24 major Federal agencies that have such bad financial systems that they don't even know the true cost of running some of their programs. And yet Republican leaders in this Congress did not force these agencies to fully account for how the money was being spent before doling out billions more of taxpayer dollars for the same programs. And that is why I am so proud of our 37-member strong, fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition for coming forward, not just to criticize the Republican leadership on this. You can bet we are going to hold them accountable. But we are going to do much more than that.…”