Press Releases

The Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, chaired by Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN), today held a hearing to examine waste, fraud, and abuse in federal child nutrition programs. Members and witnesses discussed ways to strengthen the management and oversight of these programs to ensure they are effectively and efficiently serving those most in need.

“The federal government has long invested taxpayer dollars in programs that provide healthy meals and snacks to low-income students and families,” said Chairman Rokita. “Congress has a responsibility to ensure taxpayer dollars are well-spent. That’s why we are here today. Recent reports from independent government watchdogs raise concerns about waste, fraud, and abuse in the administration of these programs. These concerns should be shared by every member of the committee.”

Witnesses identified examples of misused taxpayer dollars in three of the largest federal child nutrition programs: the Supplemental Nutritional Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the National School Lunch Program (NSLP); and the School Breakfast Program (SBP).

In WIC, for example, there have been incidents of recipients and vendors fraudulently selling federal benefits to other individuals. Director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Kay Brown, stressed the negative consequences of this practice, noting, “Improper use of WIC benefits undermines the integrity of the program and its ability to provide key nutrition assistance and services to vulnerable populations.”

Ms. Brown recognized the lack of information about how much fraud occurs in WIC and recommended “[the Department of Agriculture] collect more information to assess the national extent of attempted online sales of WIC formula benefits and determine cost-effective techniques states can use to monitor them.”

Her colleague, Acting Director for the Forensic Audits and Investigative Service, Jessica Lucas-Judy, expressed similar concerns about the school lunch and breakfast programs, both of which have been designated as “high-error” programs by the Office of Management and Budget. In a survey conducted by GAO, nearly half “of the households that self-reported household income data and size information were not eligible for the free or reduced-price-meal benefits they were receiving because their income exceeded eligibility guidelines,” she stated.

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) under the Department of Agriculture has “taken several steps to implement or enhance controls to identify and prevent ineligible beneficiaries from receiving school-meals benefits,” she acknowledged.

However, each witness concluded more work must be done. Assistant Inspector General at the Department of Agriculture, Gil Harden, said, “Overall, our audit work has shown that FNS has many opportunities to improve how it oversees NSLP, SBP, and WIC. In some cases, it needs to strengthen its own controls directly. In other cases, it needs to improve how it communicates requirements to local authorities that operate the program.”

“We need to get limited funds to those children who need it the most,” Chairman Rokita concluded. “That’s our goal here, and that should be the goal of all of government. Please help us … so we can get these funds to the kids who desperately need them.”
                     
To learn more about today’s hearing, read witness testimony, or to watch an archived webcast, visit www.republicans-edlabor.house.gov/hearings.

###