Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, after President Trump twiddled, while thousands of Americans died of COVID, we entered a national crisis. In that emergency, the Trump administration, the Biden administration, and the States did not do enough to prevent fraud in this and other programs. If Republicans were genuinely interested in strengthening any fraud efforts, as I certainly am, we could, today, approve bipartisan legislation to do that. Instead, they rejected many of the important recommendations from their own witnesses before our committee from the Government Accountability Office and the inspector general told us were necessary. Instead of protecting taxpayers today from fraud, they use this misnamed bill to actually cut the very funding that is required for any fraud and recovery of wrong payments. When millions of Texans found themselves out of a job, the Texas Workforce Commission was not ready to provide a lifeline. Even in the middle of the night, my neighbors could not get through to get the insurance to which they were entitled. Little wonder that the same State agency did a sorry job of preventing fraud. The vast majority of Texans, who eventually received unemployment, were entitled to it, unlike apparently an indicted member of the Republican Caucus. Our unemployment insurance system should be strengthened, not undermined, as this very bill would do.”