Aaron Bean Claims TANF’s Lack Of ‘Financial Guardrails’ Makes It Ripe For ‘Fraud, Waste, And Abuse’

4/9/2025

During Tuesday’s House and Ways Committee hearing, Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL) called out a lack of ‘basic financial guardrails’ in place for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Ms. Moore. I recognize Mr. Bean of Florida.

00:03Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. A very good afternoon to you and good afternoon,

00:07Work and Welfare Subcommittee, and a special welcome to our all-star panel. Really appreciate

00:13you being here. In 2023, Chairman Smith and our subcommittees, distinguished sub-chairman,

00:19Mr. LaHood, requested the GAO to conduct a comprehensive review of vulnerabilities in

00:25the TANF program based on state non-assistance spending. GAO's review found multiple areas in

00:32need of improvement and confirms TANF non-assistance, which constitutes 78% of total spending. It lacks

00:40basic financial guardrails, creating an environment ripe for fraud, waste, and abuse. Congress has

00:49work to do. We've got to come together to root that waste, fraud, and abuse out. Every tax dollar

00:55is indeed a precious tax dollar. We've got work to do. TANF's mission of raising people out of

01:02poverty and giving them temporary needy assistance is missing. It's marked. Mr. Bagdolian, in the

01:09report, Additional Actions Needed to Strengthen Fraud Risk Management, GAO shared how HHS identified 21

01:17fraud risk categories, including billing fraud, misuse of award funds, misrepresentation when

01:24applying for TANF. And GAO cites in its report that one instance, employees use TANF funds for resort

01:32vacations, cosmetic surgery, and jewelry. That sounds like waste, fraud, and abuse to me. In fact, I think

01:41that's fraud. They were ordered to pay over 3.7 in restitution. What's your assessment, Mr. Bagdolian,

01:49of HHS existing practices for fraud risk assessments? Is it cutting the mustard? Mr. Bagdolian?

01:55Well, thank you for your question, Mr. Bean. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, they have taken

02:01some steps, but they are far short of where they need to be. I displayed the fraud risk framework,

02:07which is our benchmark, and that requires to have a dedicated entity to run fraud risk management at

02:13any federal agency. 10-4. We've just got work to do. The ball's in our court for Congress to take

02:19action. That's part of it, but also the states need to be involved. That's something HHS did not

02:24consult with its state and local partners to figure out, well, what are the risks in your jurisdictions?

02:3010-4. And I'm sure the states are watching this hearing right now, so they're on notice that

02:36we've got work to do, too. Ms. Lahren, the report titled Child Welfare, State's Use of TANF and Other

02:43Major Federal Funding Sources, the report found that the fiscal year 2024, 46 states use funds,

02:51everybody listening, they use funds, TANF, that were for families and temporary needed assistance.

02:59They use these funds to plug holes in their budget. How about that? That's why Ms. Tenney,

03:05Claudia Tenney on this committee and myself, introduced a bill, Protect TANF Resources for

03:10the Family Act. Can you comment, Ms. Lahren, how states are using TANF to plug holes in their own

03:16budget when it sounds like it's going to hurt the intended target of helping needy families? Is that

03:22true? What say you, Ms. Lahren? Well, one way that they're using it is to plug holes in their child

03:29welfare budget and that money. But not the intended target of TANF, though? Well, the first goal of

03:37TANF is to keep families in their homes so they can be raised by their parents or kin. So prevention

03:43services to prevent children from entering the foster care system, that is an allowable use.

03:5110-4. Thank you so much. Mr. Arkin, states have doubled their TANF unspent balances. They're hoarding

03:56this money. They're not using it for the intent. What's the driver? What's the driver of Mr. Arkin

04:04of the increase in unspent funds? Why are they hoarding this money? Thanks for the question. We

04:09heard a few different things when we talked to states. In particular, the last couple years,

04:15that amount has gone way up during the COVID pandemic where states received a lot of other funds

04:20that because they were more time limited, they would choose to use first. And because there is no limit on

04:26by when you need to spend TANF funds, they were able to hold on to those. There are some

04:30circumstances where we heard states overestimated the needs on the assistance side. And then we

04:37heard also that there were circumstances where some of the subgrantees may not have spent all

04:42the funds they thought they were going to need to spend or hadn't obligated them as quickly as they

04:47would. You would agree that this is something that Congress's committee needs to look at to say

04:51there needs to be a timeline in general, get it out the door. Yeah, I mean, in general,

04:55when we see growing unobligated balances, that can raise questions. Why is this happening? Is this

05:01the best use of funds? Is it being used in the way that is intended? Will a gentleman yield?

05:06Thank you. I would if I had any time left. I yield back. I'm so sorry. Mr. Chairman.

Aaron Bean Claims TANF’s Lack Of ‘Financial Guardrails’ Makes It Ripe For ‘Fraud, Waste, And Abuse’

Category

Transcript

Recommended