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Oversight and Investigations
Oversight and Investigations
In the First Session of the 112th Congress, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations:
- Held 23 hearings.
- Sent over 80 letters requesting documents, briefings, interviews, and other information.
- Reviewed over 350,00 pages of documents
Solyndra Investigation
As Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, I have led the investigation into the Obama Administration’s rushed decision to loan Solyndra, a California manufacture of solar panels, $535 million in taxpayer money when incredibly the Department of Energy (DOE) knew in August of 2009 that Solyndra would go bankrupt in September of 2011. The investigation has also uncovered that during the restructuring of the Solyndra loan, DOE made the unprecedented decision to allow two venture capital firms to be paid back before taxpayers if Solyndra failed – a clear violation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
There is great cause for alarm over political influence contaminating the DOE loan guarantee program. Documents produced by the White House reveal a disturbing prevalence of wealthy donors and bundlers littered throughout the loan guarantee process, with direct access to the President’s West Wing inner circle. In addition, subpoenas for records were issued to the White House and the Executive Office of the Vice President. Those subpoenas have uncovered that the White House had advanced notice that Solyndra planned to fire workers and the Energy Department urged Solyndra to postpone the layoffs until after the 2010 election.
Please rest assured that I will continue to investigate all of the Department of Energy loan guarantee recipients and that the politicization of the loan guarantee process is a subject our investigation does not take lightly — we are looking into this and will see where it leads us.
Medicare: Waste, Fraud & Abuse
It is estimated that Medicare looses $60 - $90 billion dollars every year in Medicare fraud. This number is an unofficial estimate by third parties because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does not estimate how much fraud occurs in the program. It is unsettling that the Administration cannot determine or estimate how much fraud occurs in a $600 billion a year program. Medicare spending is estimated to grow at a rate of 4-6% annually.
Unfortunately, this is only one aspect of the problems of Medicare. Even existing Medicare programs have failed to properly manage benefits. The Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) system was designed to collect funds from insurance companies when available, making Medicare a secondary payer of benefits. However, in a hearing, the Chief Financial Officer and Director of the Office of Financial Management at CMS was unable to answer numerous questions on financial costs of the MSP program and collections. Mismanagement and inefficiencies have cost the American taxpayers billions in unnecessary payments.
I have introduced the Promoting Responsibility in Medical Expenditures (PRIME, HR 3474) to help reduce the level of waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare, Medicare and Child Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). PRIME would increase criminal and civil penalties for those who defraud the system and require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to measure how much fraud occurs in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. It also protects CMS’s predictive analytics algorithm similar to that used by credit card companies to deter fraud. It would also standardize some Medicare submission forms and require validation of prescriber numbers, beneficiary numbers, and provider numbers before a payment is made to stop fraud before it occurs rather than chasing criminals after a fraudulent payment is made.
Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Hearings