Congressional Watchdog Questions Reliability of U.S. Financial Statements, Cites ‘Serious Financial Management Problems at the Department of Defense’

The Pentagon

A Congressional watchdog said Friday that it was again unable to determine if the federal government’s consolidated financial statements were reliable.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which is Congress’s research arm, said it was hampered by “serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense,” problems in accounting for transactions between federal agencies, weaknesses in the process for preparing the statements and inadequate support for the cost of loan programs from the Small Business Administration and Department of Education.

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Sen. Rand Paul Proposes Fed Audit as Regional Bank Bailout Hits $141 Billion

Legislation offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2024,” would conduct an audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for the first time since the Dodd-Frank legislation of 2010 required an audit of the central bank’s purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

This time around, the GAO would look at the Fed’s entire balance sheet, including the recently enacted Bank Term Funding Program — now $141 billion according to the central bank’s latest H.4.1. release — that has been lending banks money in exchange for U.S. Treasuries after the spike in interest rates caused there to be a reported $620 billion of unreported losses including regional banks that experienced failures in the interest rate crunch.

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Commentary: As Planned Parenthood’s Abortion Market Share Goes Up, So Does Its Taxpayer Funding

To borrow from an old saying, nothing can be certain except for death and taxpayer funding for the abortion industry. At the request of pro-life members of Congress, the Government Accountability Office released the latest round of data detailing how much taxpayer funding goes to Planned Parenthood and other international abortion organizations. From 2019 through 2021, Planned Parenthood in the U.S. received $1.7 billion in taxpayer subsidies.

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Abortion Groups ‘Siphoned’ Billions from Taxpayers over Three Years, Report Shows

Abortion advocacy groups received close to $2 billion in federal taxpayer funding from 2019 to 2021, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released on Tuesday.

The GAO report was first requested in early 2022 by 142 congressional members led by Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn and New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, who underscored their concerns that taxpayer dollars are being used to fund abortion services. The report revealed that Planned Parenthood received approximately $1.78 billion in taxpayer funding from 2019 to 2021 and is receiving increased federal support under the current Biden administration.

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Pennsylvania Representatives Want to Limit Food-Stamp Balances to Curb Fraud

Two Pennsylvania state lawmakers are spearheading legislation to curb food-stamp fraud by limiting the balances recipients can accumulate.

Representative Ann Flood (R-Pen Argyl) is drafting a bill requiring the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) to request a federal waiver allowing the commonwealth to cap the benefits a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) user can amass.  Kerry Beninghoff (R-Bellefonte) has meanwhile begun preparing a resolution asking the Biden administration to set such limits itself. Currently, the federally funded but state administered entitlement does not require those who draw SNAP benefits to spend them in order to remain eligible for them. 

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Pennsylvania House Democrats Want to Ban Law Enforcement from Pursuing Illegal Immigrants

Pennsylvania House Democrats this week proposed a measure called the “Police and Community Safety Act” whose sole purpose is barring police and campus-security agencies from enforcing immigration laws. 

Spearheaded by Philadelphia Democrats Jose Giral and Chris Rabb, the bill resembles legislation the latter introduced unsuccessfully in 2017.

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U.S Senator JD Vance Co-Sponsors Bipartisan House Legislation to Keep AM Radio Available in New Vehicles

U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) has joined legislation that aims to prevent the end of AM radios in new vehicles.

The Bipartisan and Bicameral AM for Every Vehicle Act sponsored in the Senate by U.S Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), along with U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and Vance would order the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to issue a rule requiring automakers to keep AM broadcast radio in their automobiles without a separate or extra payment, tax, or penalty.

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Security Expert: Use Artificial Intelligence to Fight Benefits Fraud

Nationwide, electronic benefits transfer fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers up to $4.7 billion annually, according to the Government Accountability Office.

In 2022, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program distributed over $113.7 billion to nearly 22 million households.

The federal government entrusts states to reduce fraud in safety net programs. In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture told all 50 states to plan to fight EBT skimmer fraud, which happens when bad actors install a card reader on top of a legitimate point of sale at a retail store. 

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Great Lakes States’ Social Security Disability Backlog Increased Between Five and 130 Percent Since 2019, Report Finds

Nearly every U.S. state recognized increased backlogs for new Social Security disability benefit applications since 2019, And the Great Lakes states were no different. 

In fact, Wisconsin’s backlog more than doubled, ranking in fifth nationwide for increased backlogs.  From 2019 to 2023, Wisconsin’s backlog grew 130 percent, with an increase of 11,500 backlogged applications. It has the fifth highest backlog increase in the nation.

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Pentagon Still Can’t Account for Roughly $220 Billion in Equipment, Gov’t Watchdog Says

The Department of Defense (DOD) has neglected to address its inability to keep track of at least $220 billion in equipment provided to government contractors, according to a Tuesday report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Auditors first reported the Pentagon’s failure to account for government-owned equipment or material offered up for use to contracting agencies, also called government furnished property, in 2001, according to the report. DOD has made little improvement since then, increasing the risk that the Pentagon could accidentally overlook errors in the books.

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‘Nearly Doubled’ Foreign Investment in U.S. Farmland Comes Under Scrutiny

A coalition of 130 lawmakers sent a letter to a top federal watchdog raising the alarm about a spike in foreign ownership of U.S. farmland.

The letter calls for the Government Accountability Office to conduct a full review of that foreign ownership, its potential impact on trade, national security, food security and what the federal government is doing about it, if anything.

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Biden Reboots Obama-Era Green Energy Loan Program That Funded Solyndra and Cost Taxpayers Billions

The Biden administration has rebooted the Energy Department’s green loan program that lent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the Obama-era to the now-defunct green energy company, Solyndra, according to an announcement.

The Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah will receive the loan, leaving $2.5 billion for other clean energy projects, the Department of Energy (DOE) stated Wednesday.

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Supreme Court Hands Biden Admin Major Win for Climate Agenda

The Supreme Court denied a petition from 10 Republican-led states Thursday requesting it to block a key Biden administration climate policy.

The decision ensures that President Joe Biden’s so-called “social cost” of carbon policy — which assigns an estimated dollar value or cost to every ton of carbon emissions, according to the Government Accountability Office — can remain in place and be used for future federal permitting processes. The high court rejected states’ April 27 petition without giving a reason or listing which justices opposed it, according to a one-page filing published on the Supreme Court docket.

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JC Bowman Commentary: Government Needs Oversight and Transparency

It is a disturbing trend to hire outside consultants or independent contractors, with little direct oversight, to perform government jobs, whether nationally or statewide. The running joke is “if you have an out-of-state license plate on your car and drive by slowly at the Tennessee Department of Education, they will throw a contract in your car, and you too can be an education consultant.” Now that is probably not very accurate or fair, but then again, I have a Tennessee tag on my car and I have been known to drive a little fast.

It is likely that the majority of consultants and contractors follow our state laws and maintain the necessary integrity. However, all Tennesseans should be somewhat concerned by a contracting process if it has little or no accountability. We must also do a better job of tracking performance data. Especially when we are using tax dollars in Tennessee to contract with people outside the state. Oversight is critical to making sure taxpayers are getting what they are paying for.

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Treasury Department Has Distributed Fraction of Emergency Rent Assistance with Just Days Until Evictions Begin

US Treasury Dept

The Department of the Treasury has awarded a small fraction of the tens of billions of dollars Congress appropriated for pandemic rental assistance since January.

The federal government has expended less than $3 billion of the $46.6 billion in funds given to the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, the Treasury Department announced on Wednesday. The U.S. doled out $1.49 billion from January through May and $1.5 billion in June to low-income renters nationwide, according to a spreadsheet published by the Treasury.

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Government Accountability Office Investigates Biden’s Decision to Halt Border Wall Construction

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has opened an investigation into President Joe Biden’s decision to freeze congressional funds allocated for construction of the southern border wall, Politico reported.

Senate Republicans requested the GAO investigate the Biden administration for potentially violating the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), which prohibits the president from altering funding appropriated by Congress without approval, Politico reported. Republicans are referring to the $1.4 billion allocated for border wall construction in the $900 billion COVID bill passed by Congress in December.

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House Republicans Seek Probe of Chinese Communist Party Investment in US Visa Program

The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee is asking the Government Accountability Office to review whether members of the Chinese Communist Party have exploited a program that allows foreigners to obtain green cards by investing in businesses in the United States.

Reps. Jim Jordan and Guy Reschenthaler sent a letter Monday to Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, inquiring whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its members have used the EB-5 program to gain a foothold in the United States.

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Watchdog Repeatedly Warned About Nursing Home Infections Before Pandemic Struck

Infection prevention and control deficiencies were widespread across most of the country’s nursing homes before the coronavirus outbreak, a watchdog group reported Thursday.

More than 82% of the United States’ 15,500 nursing homes were cited for infection prevention and control deficiencies between 2013 and 2017, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote in a blog post Thursday.

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PROOF: Trio of Project Veritas Videos Expose Unaccountable Federal Government Employees Pushing a Soclialist Agenda From Within the Administrative State

By Natalia Castro   When federal bureaucrats are unaccountable to even their own managers, it can be hard to identify and correct abuse within the system. In his most recent undercover expose, James O’Keefe sought to uncover the stories of the federal government’s worst employees directly from the source. This week, Project Veritas released three videos highlighting rampant misuse of federal resources by employees for political gain. All stories have a similar thread: the employees believe they can never be fired. And they are not completely wrong, current law makes their removal extremely different despite clear evidence of abuse. O’Keefe’s team of investigative journalists went undercover speaking with federal government employees who are also active members of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), an organization dedicated to ridding the country of capitalism — the economic system responsible for freeing and uplifting millions around the world from poverty — and replacing it with socialism (also known as the economic system responsible for killing millions of people in the last century and continuing to leave Venezuelans starving and penniless). In the first Project Veritas video, Stuart Karaffa, a Department of State employee explained how he spends his day working, “I have nothing to lose. It’s impossible to fire federal employees… I’m…

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