All Posts

“Today’s bipartisan approval of FISMA shows that Congress is serious about our nation’s cybersecurity,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the bill’s lead Republican sponsor. “FISMA 2002 is in desperate need of an update. This legislation will ensure that agencies are better prepared against real threats instead of the monotonous ‘check the box’ activity that FISMA has become.”

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform adopted $83 billion in deficit reduction provisions today. The taxpayer savings were adopted by the Committee to meet the goals of H. Con. Res 112, House Fiscal Year 2013 budget resolution, on a vote of 19-15.

qP11MPmsiIk

9:00am in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building

Issa on passage of revolutionary DATA Act: “Today’s strong bipartisan showing is a major win for transparency and accountability. The lavish spending by GSA in Las Vegas has again highlighted the extent of waste and excess that occurs in government. The DATA Act will create accountability by exposing waste and allowing Americans to examine the details of how the federal is spending their tax dollars.”

Issa: “Instead of finding savings to help the Postal Service survive, the Senate postal bill has devolved into a special interest spending binge that would actually make things worse. Simultaneously harming taxpayers and the Postal Service’s shrinking customer base, the Senate bill includes a $33 billion dollar taxpayer funded bailout while increasing USPS debt by nearly $1 billion dollars.”

Issa & Cummings: “Our nation's capacity to protect the President, the Vice President, and other high-ranking officials when they travel abroad, depends on the strong character and sound judgment of uniformed military personnel who, along with the U.S. Secret Service plan and implement those trips. The recent actions of a group of uniformed military personnel on assignment in Cartagena, Colombia, showed an alarming lack of both.”

Issa: “Like Social Security, the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund is not a store of wealth, it’s a line on the Treasury’s ledger. If the federal government’s out of control spending is not curbed, these accounts will prove just how empty they really are--we need to secure these earned employee benefits and reduce the deficit at the same time."

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has released a new report documenting shortcomings in the federal Medicaid program leading to billions in wasteful or fraudulent spending. The Committee noted that Medicaid spending had grown by 450 percent over the past two decades, and is projected to more than double over the next decade. As spending increases, the report said, the likelihood for waste, fraud and abuse also increases.

No one knows how much of Medicaid's budget consists of waste, fraud, and abuse, but it may exceed $100 billion a year.