Blake D. Moore

“We passed a bill this week to stop a government shutdown. It keeps the government open and gives us more time to make spending decisions. This bill protects funding for veterans, food aid, housing, disaster relief, transit, and national security. I am glad both parties worked together so workers and families will not be hurt by another shutdown.”

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Kennedy) for his excellent words. They come from a place of firm understanding, being a physician and recognizing that the answers are not derived from Washington. I had it couched. I was talking with a colleague the other day, saying that the legislation of the working families tax cuts that we accomplished last year had the largest spending reductions in history. At the same time, it has provided more relief to families with respect to the tax policy than any piece of tax legislation that we have seen. It is all focused on middle- and lower-income Americans. That is where the bulk of that comes from, and it gives them more opportunities and options to be able to choose their course, their decisionmaking, and their potential upward mobility. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for highlighting all of that. Mr. Speaker, this week, we passed legislation to prevent another government shutdown and provide more time to make intentional decisions about the other Federal spending aspects that still need to be accomplished. We acted early to keep the government open and made the investments needed to keep America running, putting the interests of families and businesses first. There was no last-minute crisis, just responsible government well ahead of the shutdown date. That keeps America moving forward. This bill protects veterans, families in need, and our national security. It preserves programs for senior nutrition; women, infants, and children in the WIC program; housing assistance; veteran services; and disaster relief. It provides the stability needed to meet critical national security obligations and maintain America’s strength. It extends major highway, rail, and transit authorities, which gives States and communities certainty while longer term legislation will continue to move forward. Now, we will continue debating, discussing, and moving forward on that larger appropriations process. We are ensuring the process is committee-led and Member-driven, as it should be, with more transparency and accountability. Last year’s government shutdown hurt American workers and families. I am grateful both sides of the aisle came together to avoid another one. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.”

“I want the House to pass this bill. It takes too long to get federal permits to open new mines, which makes us depend on China for minerals. This bill speeds up the permit process for all hardrock mines to help our economy and national security.”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in favor of the Protecting Domestic Mining Act. Mr. Speaker, I also rise to give the ranking member, the gentleman from northern California, another opportunity to agree with a Utahn today. I am very proud to co-lead this legislation, including this bill, with Representative Shreve and sincerely thank Chairman Westerman for his leadership on this issue. This committee is about getting things done. This committee is about being productive, and it is an honor to have been on this committee and to continue to be associated with it. I am glad to see this very important bill progress through our Chamber. It is no question that the American domestic mining industry is critical to our national security and our energy dominance. In Utah alone, mining supports over 43,000 jobs and contributes over $5 billion to our State GDP annually. Across the country, those numbers jump to nearly 600,000 jobs and over $375 billion to our GDP. Growth in this sector has historically been difficult. It takes an average of 19 years for a new mine to go through the permitting process. These delays unnecessarily burden our growing supply chain demands and create further reliance on Chinese mineral production. The FAST-41 Program was a move in the right direction to ensure more efficient and predictable timelines when working with the Federal Government to open new mines. The increased coordination and cross- agency engagement are exactly the kind of improvements that our government needs. Unfortunately, the Biden administration decided that only certain types of mines should be eligible for FAST-41. This bill corrects that decision and protects the eligibility of all hardrock mines. We often speak about the importance of supporting domestic production and the risks associated with overreliance on countries that want to see us fail. We have a real opportunity to change our programs, to support domestic industry, promote American energy and national security, and fulfill our responsibility to make government work better for the people. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this bill.”

“I want the House to pass this bill. It puts a monument for Medal of Honor recipients on the National Mall. Fewer than 4,000 Americans have earned this award, and they deserve this recognition.”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Hershel ``Woody’’ Williams National Monument Location Act. First, I give a very sincere thank you to the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and the ranking member for expeditiously working to get this bill through, in addition to in years past when we got the National Medal of Honor memorialized and approved as well. This has been an amazing thing to be part of, and these two gentlemen have been very helpful. Also, as a third voice to concur, the Senate should pass a lot more House bills. They should realize how good of work we do over here. Mr. Speaker, as America celebrates our 250th year, it is only fitting that we recognize the sacrifices made that allow us the freedoms that we have today. Over 40 million Americans have served in the U.S. Armed Forces since the Civil War, but fewer than 4,000 have been awarded the Medal of Honor. This award not only commemorates the bravery of those who earn it, but it also honors their humanity, patriotism, and sacrifice for the United States and her people. I think President Harry S. Truman put it best when he said: ``We do not go to war for gain or territory. We go to war for principles, and we produce young men like these. . . . I would rather have that medal . . . than be President of the United States.’’ Placing a monument to Medal of Honor recipients on The National Mall was one of the first initiatives I worked on when I came to Congress nearly 6 years ago. First, we authorized a Medal of Honor monument here in Washington, D.C., and that bill passed Congress and was signed into law in December of 2021. This legislation is the next and final step to giving our heroes and their families the commemoration they deserve. I am grateful to my friend from Texas (Mr. Veasey) for working on both bills with me. If today’s bill looks familiar, it should. A version of S. 858 was one of the first bills that passed the House in the 119th Congress, and it passed by a vote of 414-0. I urge my colleagues to support this bill again and join me in thanking our Medal of Honor recipients for their patriotism, sacrifice, and example.”

“Our national debt is growing too fast, and fraud makes it worse. Scammers steal up to 500 billion dollars from federal programs every year. We must stop this fraud to protect taxpayers and lower the deficit. I am working on a bill to put money recovered from health care fraud back into stopping more scams.”

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for his message and focus on very important issues. Mr. Speaker, as I was mentioning, there is no question that we have a major issue in front of us. Over the last 18 months, I have gone back home and had a chance to share a lot of the specifics as to the gains that we are making from the reductions. I want to just highlight some of this. Our Federal debt continues to grow unsustainably, and major trust fund programs face looming insolvency. To add insult to injury here, there is rampant fraud across our country. If we want to get a handle on our national debt, then we also need to address what I will call the invisible tax on the American people. The data is staggering. The Government Accountability Office estimates that the U.S. Government loses as much as $500 billion in Federal funds every year to fraud. Half a trillion dollars is wasted because fraudsters and scammers cheat our systems. That is $4,000 per American household every year completely wasted. If there is one thing that infuriates every American, it is the waste of their hard-earned taxpayer dollars. I find that in my own life. My wife and I are budgeting. The part that is frustrating is that it is not that we don’t have to spend or invest in areas, but we have to eliminate the waste. Families are working hard to play by the rules, and fraudsters are stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from childcare programs, To address this, the House Republicans recently passed the Stop Child Care Scams Act, forcing accountability when States repeatedly fail to fix fraud and serious program violations. Fake ghost students are draining $180 million in financial aid that should be helping hardworking American students, so I am supporting ID verification before tax dollars to support those programs go out the door. Our reports have exposed fraud in States like Minnesota and California. They have industrial-scale theft, and it has gone unabated for years. Even States like Florida have had many issues in this regard. One-third of all hospices in the entire country are in Los Angeles, and CMS estimates that at least one-half of those are fraudulent. Eight hundred of those hospices have now been suspended. The numbers I had from just a couple of months ago were that they suspended licenses of 400. They have even had a chance to do more, but they have suspended 400 licenses and really only heard back from 12, meaning that 12 were probably running legitimate businesses. They identified, through good data analytics, investing in targeting the right areas where we anticipate there being significant fraud, and they are taking action. If somebody reaches out and says, ``Wait, what is going on? Why did you cancel our license?’’ if they are a legitimate business doing legitimate work, they can show that. The overwhelming majority were actually pinpointed. They suspected some level of fraud, and it appears to be very accurate. Another anecdote that I just got recently, just this week, from a meeting with members within this agency, CMS, is that they have sent letters to the Medicare patients. Patients in hospice care are signed up for treatment with a number to show they are in hospice care. They have an opportunity to send correspondence to these folks just confirming that they have initiated hospice care. Mr. Speaker, 15 percent have come back from States--I think the exact States were in the Southwest, California, Nevada, and, I believe, Arizona. Those three States came back with 15 percent of the people whom they were sending letters to saying, no, they are not on hospice. The majority of that was focused in this area. For some reason, the Los Angeles area went rampant in this hospice world. Ninety companies were associated with one address. I have worked in the durable medical equipment industry before. There is equipment, call centers, and a workforce. You can’t run 90 companies out of one location, Mr. Speaker, but this is what these dedicated men and women within our organizations within this administration are going out trying to find. These are real numbers. These are real examples. This is not made up. When I get the chance to go back and share this at home, they are really frustrated. They are also proud that this type of fraud doesn’t stem from Utah. It is a moment of some recognition that States have a huge responsibility to play with respect to how these programs are implemented, and the States need to do a good job. I am proud to say that Utah has been deemed to be very strong in this case. I am really impressed with the professionalism of what I am seeing. They continue to go and identify this. They are using good data analytics to be able to figure out where the potential might be next and go after it. It is something that I share tonight as we highlight these issues of deficits, that this is going on daily, and as part of that first year of success of $360 billion, this is part of it. This is the type of stuff that Americans love to see because it is wasteful and fraudulent. People need to be held accountable. That is all taking place and happening. Just this week, the Labor Department sent a strike team to New York to crack down on unemployment insurance fraud that is costing taxpayers an estimated $2 million a day. New York recorded more than $750 million in improper unemployment insurance payments and $507 million in fraudulent payments just last year. House Republicans are focused on making sure the services get to the people who actually need them and are not wasted or stolen. In the Ways and Means Committee, we have worked to put new guardrails on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to mitigate improper payments and ensure States are paying their fair share for this critically important program. Empowering agencies to investigate and root out fraud and making targeted investments into fraud prevention and recovery programs is a giant step forward. For every dollar Medicare spends on monitoring programs, the government sees almost $25 in savings. Mr. Speaker, you will see Dr. Oz communicate this, and you will see his team communicate this. They have team members under Dr. Oz’s purview who have said: I will come back and work in this job again. They worked in the first Trump administration. They said: I will come back if we can be even more laser focused and really go after the fraud. That was Dr. Oz’s mission, and that is what his team’s mission is. They do an incredible job of explaining and sharing with us the proper information. It is not hyperbole; it is not rhetoric; it is literally data. They talk about these numbers with respect to spending a dollar on these efforts, site visits, sending out communication to find out if they are truly actual patients on hospice. That takes a little bit of resources, but we are getting back a strong yield from that, $1 for $25 in savings. For every dollar Medicare spends on monitoring programs, the government sees almost $25 in savings. We need more programs like this to root out fraud and recover improper payments. To that end, I am working on legislation that will allow more of the money recovered by the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program to be reinvested directly into the fraud prevention program. The areas that this money needs to be reinvested back into are the trust funds and also back into the programs that will help us continue to be strong in this regard. Earlier this year, House Republicans passed the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act, legislation that strengthened fraud prevention across the Federal Government and help protect taxpayer dollars from fraud, scams, and abuse. Families are stretching every dollar right now. Fraudsters are cashing in on taxpayer-funded programs like childcare, student aid, and safety-net programs. Americans play by the rules. Scammers should not get rewarded. This is the right fight. Every dollar stolen through fraud is a dollar taken from workers, families, seniors, veterans, and small businesses that actually need the support. We have got enough excuses, loopholes, and taxpayer money disappearing into fraud and abuse. Our government programs have a problem, and our taxpayers are the ones paying the price. These are the loopholes we are closing. We are cracking down on this and holding negligent State leaders accountable. We cannot lower our deficit without addressing the fraudulent spending throughout our country. For a year and a half, Republicans have shone a light on the amount of fraud, abuse, and the sheer waste. We are reducing the deficit by cutting this spending, and it is happening on daily basis. As I mentioned earlier, the data that I have here, I was told several months ago that they had canceled 400 licenses and only heard back from 12. That is obviously a green light to then reach out and identify more. If you cancel a license and you don’t hear from that company or those stakeholders, you have definitely nailed that right aspect of finding that fraudulent activity. It is a point that I hope that every American can really understand. This is not a partisan issue. Everything back here becomes partisan, but if you look at it and just actually take the data, this is a sensational thing that is going on, and it is going to continue to go on for the duration of this administration. We must continue to courageously work to solve this crisis, and we cannot let it get too late. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to bring Utah’s sound fiscal policies to Washington on the House Budget Committee, and I will continue to fight for the American family as we seek to give our children a better economic future. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.”