Deb Fischer: “I rise to discuss legislation that I am introducing in the U.S. Senate today, the Judgment Fund Transparency Act. As my…”

“I rise to discuss legislation that I am introducing in the U.S. Senate today, the Judgment Fund Transparency Act. As my colleagues may or may not know, the Judgment Fund is administered by the Treasury Department and is used to pay certain court judgments and settlements against the Federal Government. It is essentially an unlimited amount of money available to pay for Federal Government liability. It is not subject to the annual appropriations process, and even more remarkably, the Treasury Department has no reporting requirements, so these funds are paid out with very little oversight or scrutiny. This is no small matter, as the Judgment Fund disburses billions of dollars in payments per year. In recent years, Treasury has paid the following from the Fund: fiscal year 2012--$2.9 billion, fiscal year 2011--$2.2 billion, fiscal year 2010--$1.1 billion, fiscal year 2009-- $2.3 billion, fiscal year 2008--$790 million, fiscal year 2007--$1 billion, and fiscal year 2006--$628 million. Before the Judgment Fund was established, claims against the government were assigned to a Congressional committee that would appropriate funds in order to pay liability, attorneys' fees, and costs associated with the claim. Once the Judgment Fund was established in 1956, however, Congressional committees stopped appropriating funds explicitly for this purpose.…”