Rick Lazio: “our Nation's welfare programs were created to provide assistance to the truly needy. Yet, it is generally agreed that…”

“our Nation's welfare programs were created to provide assistance to the truly needy. Yet, it is generally agreed that the system has gone sour and is tainted with fraud and abuse, which not only raises taxpayer costs, but undermines this basic purpose. Today, I introduced a bill to help reduce fraud and save millions of dollars in the AFDC Program. My bill calls upon the Secretary of HHS to conduct a feasibility study on the use of biometric technology as a means to validate the identities of AFDC recipients. According to recently published reports, New York State could save $46 million a year by expanding its experimental two-county finger-imaging program that has been running for 15 months and saved the State nearly $700,000. Governor Cuomo has called for the expansion of this project. Los Angeles County has been running a similar demonstration program since 1991, which is expected to save $20 million over 5 years. If the savings suggested by these examples are even in the ballpark, then we should not waste any time in moving this idea forward as an important component of welfare reform. Reducing welfare fraud will cut costs and ensure that this assistance goes to those who honestly need help, not those who cheat the system and the taxpayers.”