UNKNOWN: labor and pensions will please come to order. Now, my parents instilled in me the value
SPEAKER_04: of a dollar. They were, they grew up in the depression and they just knew that you worked hard for your money and if you lost a dollar, it could actually make an impact upon your
UNKNOWN: family. And you had to be wise how it was spent. And really, the American people expect
SPEAKER_04: the same from the federal government. If my people back home in Louisiana have one request, if they are sending hard-earned dollars to Washington that would be spent responsibly making sure that those who deserve the dollars get the dollars, but those who are stealing the money are prosecuted. And they feel angry right now because of reports that money meant to support families in child care has been at best misspent and at worst stolen. And that seems to be what is happening in some child care programs and some other safety net programs and this hearing is about that. Minnesota has been a wake-up call to a problem which runs deeper. By the way, if we're going to create support for such programs, nothing
UNKNOWN: undermines support than people stealing from the program. Just to say that. If you believe
SPEAKER_04: in these programs, you should be the ones crying loudest for accountability or otherwise fellow Americans have no belief in the support of the program. Minnesota's Office of the Department of Health and Human Services said in 2018, this state, Minnesota, consistently with a high rate of misspent dollars, almost one in every $10 spent on child care coming from the federal government in Minnesota has been stolen or misused and billions more in federal dollars from nutrition, housing, autism programs and Medicaid. Now, Minnesota was and let's be clear. It isn't a California, New York, Illinois or Colorado problem. It
UNKNOWN: is an American problem. Can I see that chart? Some states have done well and some states
SPEAKER_04: shamefully. And this is what we need to look at. Now, it's not enough to be angry. We've got to have accountability. We've got to stop the fraud. We've got to protect the taxpayers. We've got to allocate the resources where the resources need to be allocated for those families who actually have the need. As chairman of this committee, I can say on a bipartisan basis that we should not tolerate waste, fraud and abuse, stealing money in my state from the taxpayers of Louisiana, but it could be just as easily the taxpayer of any state represented here. And we can see what has worked. Mississippi, I mean, they have their rate at zero. I think
UNKNOWN: it's like 0.34 or something. Good for Mississippi. And compare that to Minnesota's 9%. And I
SPEAKER_04: hate to say it. I don't mean to embarrass Senator Murray, but Oregon's rate is 35%. Oh, I'm sorry. She reminded me. She's from Washington State. You know, sometimes I...