The federal government made nearly a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/money" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quarter of a trillion dollars</a> in &#8220;improper payments&#8221; in the last fiscal year, a congressional watchdog agency estimated.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/d24106927.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> unveiled last week said 14 agencies reported a total of $236 billion in botched payments in fiscal 2023.
Here, &#8220;improper payments&#8221; were defined as &#8220;those that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount.&#8221;
GAO said agencies reported that $175 billion, or over 74% of the total, were attributed to overpayments.
The total represented an $11 billion decrease from fiscal 2022, but GAO demonstrated in a graphs how &#8220;improper payments&#8221; have, on average, risen over the past 20 years.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The federal government has made an estimated $2.7 trillion in improper payments in the last 20 fiscal years—including $236 billion in FY23.
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report on what is causing these errors &amp; what can be done to prevent them: <a href="https://t.co/tbSrZG882J">https://t.co/tbSrZG882J</a> <a href="https://t.co/axpRrhNNtr">pic.twitter.com/axpRrhNNtr</a>
&mdash; U.S. GAO (@USGAO) <a href="https://twitter.com/USGAO/status/1772685603185815899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Since fiscal 2003, the cumulative amount has totaled $2.7 trillion. GAO said improper payments have &#8220;consistently&#8221; been an issue across the government.
The $236 billion figure for fiscal 2023 is just an estimate, GAO cautioned, and it does not include some programs that agencies have determined to be &#8220;susceptible&#8221; to mismanaged payments.
GAO listed the Health and Human Services Department&#8217;s Temporary Assistance for Need Families program as an example.
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An analysis found that problematic expenditures were &#8220;concentrated&#8221; in five program areas, including $51.1 billion for Medicare and $50.3 billion for Medicaid.
There was also $43.6 billion for Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, $21.9 billion for Earned Income Tax Credit, and $18.7 billion for Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness.
All other programs from which there was data accounted for $50.1 billion in &#8220;improper payments.&#8221;
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) commented on the topline $236 billion estimate for fiscal 2023 by taking a swipe at the Biden administration.
&#8220;We need accountability here! This is YOUR money the Biden admin took out of your wallet and wasted,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/SenRickScott/status/1774172902755123374" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X.
GAO said it provided a draft of its report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment, but &#8220;OMB did not have any comments on the report.&#8221;
In fiscal 2022, 14 of 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 &#8220;complied with applicable improper payment criteria, as reported by their agency inspectors general,&#8221; GAO said.
That number marked an increase from 2021, when GAO said inspectors general reported 10 agencies were compliant.
GAO <a href="https://www.gao.gov/blog/federal-government-made-236-billion-improper-payments-last-fiscal-year?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=blogsm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it has made &#8220;numerous&#8221; recommendations and suggestions to Congress on ways to reduce payment errors.

US dollars banknotes

Federal Agencies Made $236 Billion In ‘Improper Payments’ In Fiscal 2023, GAO Finds

Federal Agencies Made $236 Billion In 'Improper Payments' In Fiscal 2023, GAO Finds

Biden Administration

General

Inspector general

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Rick Scott

U.S.

The Government Accountability Office said on Friday that the federal government is on an “unsustainable fiscal path,” and that it could not determine whether the federal government’s consolidated financial statements are reliable. 
Accounting problems with the Defense Department, Education Department, and other agencies have all contributed to the financial problems, according to the GAO. The office was unable to properly evaluate the financial reliability of the federal government as the national debt continues to balloon and deficit spending remains high. 
“Congress and the Administration need reliable and complete financial information, within each agency and across the government as a whole, to govern effectively and efficiently,” <a href="https://www.gao.gov/press-release/gao-unable-provide-opinion-u.s.-governments-financial-statements#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAlso%2C%20the%20federal%20government%20continues,any%20challenges%20that%20may%20occur.%E2%80%9D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general of the United States and head of the GAO.
“Also, the federal government continues to operate on an unsustainable fiscal path, jeopardizing the country’s long-term position to face domestic and international challenges. The creation of a long-term fiscal plan is needed to strengthen our readiness to confront any challenges that may occur,” Dodaro added. 
According to GAO, the Defense Department is partially at fault due to “financial management problems,” while the Education Department was plagued by data problems for estimating costs of its loan programs. Additionally, problems remain with the Small Business Administration’s COVID-era relief programs and several government agencies made over $236 billion in “improper payments.”
The Pentagon has repeatedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/flagrant-disregard-for-taxpayer-funds-pentagon-fails-sixth-consecutive-audit" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> been criticized</a> over its handling of taxpayer money, failing to pass its annual financial audit for the sixth consecutive year in November. The Pentagon, which has $3.8 trillion in assets alongside $4 trillion in liabilities, <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2023/11/16/pentagon-fails-sixth-audit-with-number-of-passing-grades-stagnant/?utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=sailthr">only had</a> seven of 30 sub-audits rated clean by auditors.
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On Thursday, the GAO released a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106987" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> on the nation&#8217;s fiscal health that highlighted the federal government’s massive deficit spending. The report urged Congress to come up with a plan to address the spending and fiscal path of the United States. 
The report found that debt would reach 200% of the GDP by 2050 unless changes were made to revenue and spending policies. It also said that funding for Social Security and Medicare was expected to be depleted within ten years unless financing gaps were addressed. 
The United States’ debt now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greatest-threat-to-americas-national-security-national-debt-hits-34-trillion-for-first-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exceeds $34 trillion</a>, a marker it crossed in January just months after hitting $33 trillion.

U.S. Congress Wrangles With Agreement To Solve Government Shutdown

Federal Government On ‘Unsustainable Fiscal Path’ That Is Jeopardizing The Country, Congressional Watchdog Says

Department of Defense

Department of Education

Federal Government

National Debt

Politics

spending

The millions in backlogged immigration cases are due to understaffing by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-justice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Justice</a> (DOJ), according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The GAO reported in a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/blog/u.s.-immigration-courts-see-significant-and-growing-backlog?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=blogsm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> on Thursday that the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) had neglected to implement a strategic workforce plan for years, resulting in a sizable backlog further compounded by the ongoing border crisis.
The GAO warned the EOIR back in a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-17-438" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2017 report</a> that it would face long-standing workforce management challenges due to not having a strategic workforce plan. The current case backlog — <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/backlog/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">over 2.6 million</a> — is around five times greater than it was in 2017.
However, that number is likely an undercount of illegal immigrants. Rebecca Gambler, director of GAO Homeland Security and Justice, <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/preserving-due-process-and-the-rule-of-law-examining-the-status-of-our-nations-immigration-courts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified</a> to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that their counts only reflect those entered into the immigration court system.
“For individuals who have not yet reported to an ICE office or for whom ICE has not yet issued a Notice To Appear, they have not been charged and thus are not in immigration proceedings,” said Gambler.
In an <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105431" target="_blank" rel="noopener">April follow-up report</a>, the GAO discovered that the EOIR still had not developed a strategic workforce plan or set workforce planning goals. The GAO also noted that the EOIR didn’t have a governance structure for guidance or leadership accountability regarding progress on workforce goals.
“Even though EOIR was continuing to see growing backlogs, we found that it had still not developed a strategic workforce plan or set workforce planning goals, as we had previously recommended,” stated GAO.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Over 2 million cases are pending in U.S. immigration courts. We found that staffing concerns contributed to the backlog, which can cause delays for noncitizens awaiting hearings.
Our new blog post looks at what the courts can do to address these concerns: <a href="https://t.co/f38v58MhSX">https://t.co/f38v58MhSX</a> <a href="https://t.co/9Cb2ZYAUIN">pic.twitter.com/9Cb2ZYAUIN</a>
&mdash; U.S. GAO (@USGAO) <a href="https://twitter.com/USGAO/status/1715065341200454051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2023</a></blockquote>
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The GAO found that the EOIR last had an agency-wide strategic workforce plan in 2013.
Gambler further shared in her testimony on Wednesday that EOIR officials were developing a strategic workforce plan, but had not yet offered a timeline for its completion.
“A strategic workforce plan also helps an agency be positioned, then, to speak to Congress about what the resource needs are and how the agency will go about meeting those resource needs,” said Gambler.
Of the six recommendations <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105431%23summary_recommend" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> by the GAO in April, EOIR hasn’t taken any responsive actions.
Gambler also revealed that EOIR hasn’t evaluated its judge appraisal program, and that immigration judges have expressed numerous concerns with the program’s feasibility and efficiency.
Efficiency was also a concern raised by court staff regarding EOIR’s electronic filing system, which contains tools for reviewing case information and issuing decisions. Gambler relayed complaints of outages and delays, and noted that EOIR lacked a regular review process for the e-filing system to ensure smooth operations.
According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), there were about 607,000 cases <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/quickfacts/eoir.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closed</a> by immigration courts as of August. Judges issued removal and voluntary departure orders for about 39 percent of those cases.
TRAC reported about 35,300 individuals <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/quickfacts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">held</a> in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention as of September. Over 194,600 were held in ICE Alternatives to Detention (ATD) programs, with San Francisco, California, having the highest number in the programs.

Immigration

Immigration Court Backlog Due To DOJ Understaffing, Says Government Accountability Office

Department of Justice

Illegal Immigration

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden administration</a> did not track greenhouse gas emissions caused by its travel for a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climate conference</a> sponsored by the United Nations despite an executive order from President Joe Biden, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). 
A newly released <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105863.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the GAO shows that the State Department did not follow an executive order from Biden when it sent a delegation of 259 people to the 27th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Egypt in November 2022. The report also noted that emissions related to the same conference the previous year were not tracked. 
“An executive order requires federal agencies to track and reduce emissions from air travel and other sources with the goal of achieving net-zero government emissions by 2050. However, the State Department did not calculate emissions from travel to these conferences,” the GAO <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105863" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a news release. 
The executive order in question comes from December 2021, which was after the 26th U.N. climate conference which Biden attended. 
“State officials told GAO that they did not have a systematic way to calculate greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. delegation travel to the United Nation&#8217;s Conference of the Parties 26 and 27 or any past meetings of the Conference of the Parties. State is developing methods to estimate future travel emissions, according to State officials,” the GAO said. 
In its official response, the department said that it agreed with the “thrust of the recommendation,” and proposed tracking emissions from official department travel to all meetings. 
The report comes after Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Joni Ernst (R-IA) all requested that the GAO look into whether the department was complying with the order. 
“Americans are tired of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. who don’t practice what they preach when it comes to protecting the environment,” Capito told POLITICO in response to the report. 
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“In the Biden administration, the same people who are closing down power plants across the country and forcing Americans to buy electric vehicles are also the ones flying to climate conferences and using fossil fuels without apology,” she added. 
While the Biden administration has publicly demanded a transition to green energy and emphasized concerns about the climate, many officials in the<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/john-kerry-defends-world-leaders-who-fly-private-while-pushing-climate-action" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> administration have taken heat</a> for seeming to dismiss concerns about the impact of their own travel on the climate. 
John Kerry, Biden’s climate czar was widely criticized after it was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/john-kerrys-family-private-jet-emitted-300-metric-tons-carbon-biden-took-office" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that his family’s private jet had emitted 300 metric tons of carbon during Biden’s time as president.

Key Speakers At CERAWeek 2023

Biden Admin Did Not Track Emissions From Travel To Climate Conference Despite Executive Order: Report

Climate Change

Environment

Executive

Joe Biden

State Department

United Nations

The federal government wasted as much as $247 billion in payment errors during fiscal year 2022, according to a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/blog/federal-payment-errors-known-improper-payments-are-continuing-concern" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Government Accountability Office released at the end of last month.
The agency defines payment errors as “overpayments or payments that should not have been made,” such as those issued to deceased individuals or former beneficiaries no longer eligible for relevant programs. The report comes as the national debt approaches $31.7 trillion. The agency added that incorrect payments are a “long-standing issue” which have cost the federal government $2.4 trillion over the past two decades.
Some 51% of the payment errors were made by Medicaid and Medicare, the federal programs which provide health insurance for low-income households and seniors, respectively. The former reported $80.6 billion in payment errors, while the latter reported $46.8 billion.
“Medicare could improve communication around its prior authorization program. This program requires that beneficiaries get approval before receiving certain items like powered wheelchairs, and it could reduce expenses and improper payments,” the Government Accountability Office recommended. “Medicaid could improve oversight to ensure that claims aren’t paid to ineligible medical providers, including those who have suspended or revoked medical licenses.”
The Paycheck Protection Program, an initiative launched three years ago to subsidize businesses that retained their employees amid the lockdown-induced recession, accounted for a reported $29 billion in payment errors last year. Fraud with respect to pandemic-era payments has cost taxpayers considerable sums: criminals may have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fraudulent-lockdown-era-unemployment-payments-may-amount-to-60-billion-government-watchdog-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stolen</a> as much as $60 billion from the unemployment programs enacted by the stimulus bills, according to another <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105523.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Government Accountability Office, while other <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shock-half-of-covid-19-unemployment-funds-may-have-gone-to-scammers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates</a> say that as much as $400 billion, equivalent to half of the total unemployment funds approved by the federal government, was lost to fraud.
Payment errors with respect to federal Unemployment Insurance, which provides benefits to individuals who lose their positions, and the Earned Income Tax Credit, a refundable tax benefit for low-income and moderate-income households, amounted to $18.9 billion and $18.2 billion. Fraud related to the former program emerged as beneficiaries continued to “claim benefits after returning to work” and employers failed to “provide timely and adequate information on reasons for employee departures,” while the Government Accountability Office recommended that the IRS more carefully examine W-2 filings before issuing tax refunds.
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The dismal report on federal payment errors comes as lawmakers battle over the debt ceiling, a policy established by Congress that prevents the federal government from spending beyond the predetermined national debt limit of $31.4 trillion after the threshold was surpassed earlier this year. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yellen-warns-congress-extraordinary-measures-have-begun-after-debt-ceiling-breached" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> lawmakers that she was forced to implement “extraordinary measures” to fund federal agencies until early June, after which the government will default on obligations unless lawmakers suspend or raise the debt limit.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) delivered a <a href="https://www.speaker.gov/speaker-mccarthys-speech-at-the-new-york-stock-exchange/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> on Monday that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-president-continues-to-hide-kevin-mccarthy-addresses-wall-street-on-pending-national-debt-default" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> for restoring work requirements to ensure that “able-bodied adults without dependents” remain in the workforce as part of a broader package that ties an increase in the debt limit to spending caps on the federal budget. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-scoff-as-mccarthy-calls-out-biden-for-halting-debt-limit-negotiations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dismissed</a> the speech from McCarthy, asserting that the lawmaker “continues to bumble us toward a catastrophic default that would cause the economy to crash, spike job loss, and raise costs for American families.&#8221;

Money on fire

Government Wasted Shocking Amount Of Money On Incorrect Payments Last Year

Government Wasted $247 Billion On Incorrect Payments Last Year

The FBI and Capitol Police identified &#8220;credible threats&#8221; leading up to January 6, 2021, but they and other agencies failed to fully process or share information with their partners, according to a government watchdog agency.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan agency that <a href="https://www.gao.gov/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">works for Congress</a>, released on Tuesday a 122-page assessment regarding security measures taken ahead of the day, more than two years ago, when crowd of people entered the U.S. Capitol, disrupting lawmakers who were meeting to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Through human source reporting, investigations, and observed activity, and information from social media platforms, investigators tracked individuals of concern, GAO says.
Of the 10 federal agencies that identified &#8220;potential threats&#8221; of violence before January 6, GAO says the FBI and Capitol Police detected “credible threats,&#8221; which the watchdog agency defines as &#8220;specific and actionable threats, such as threats that prompted action by law enforcement agencies to conduct investigations or modify security measures.&#8221;
On January 5, 2021, Capitol Police &#8220;received a tip regarding plans to block and confront Democratic members of Congress from entering the Capitol through the tunnel system via the basement of the Library of Congress,&#8221; <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106625?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=usgao" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GAO says</a>.
&#8220;Further, Capitol Police personnel identified a group’s intentions to form a perimeter around the Capitol complex on the morning of January 6,&#8221; the GAO report adds. &#8220;As a result, Capitol Police deployed a Civil Disturbance Unit platoon one hour earlier than originally planned to increase the security presence at locations identified in the credible threat.&#8221;
However the FBI, in addition to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&amp;A), &#8220;did not consistently follow agency policies or procedures for processing tips or potential threats because they did not have controls to ensure compliance with policies,&#8221; GAO says. The Capitol Police, the watchdog adds, &#8220;did not share threat products with its frontline officers.&#8221;
GAO made 10 recommendations to five agencies, including the FBI and Capitol Police, to shore up weaknesses, including &#8220;internal control deficiencies related to processing or sharing information.&#8221;
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An FBI spokesperson pointed The Daily Wire to a letter by Larissa Knapp, executive assistant director for the FBI’s national security branch, to the GAO saying the bureau accepted the watchdog&#8217;s recommendations.
The FBI &#8220;was not aware of actionable intelligence indicating that a large mob would storm the Capitol building. It is worth emphasizing that the findings of the GAO do nothing to dispute that assertion,&#8221; she emphasized.
The Daily Wire also reached out to the Capitol Police for comment.
Chief of Police J. Thomas Manger said in a letter to GAO the Capitol Police is drafting a new policy that will feature guidance for sharing threat-related information agency-wide.
For its inquiry, GAO says it interviewed officials and reviewed agency threat products, but did not examine threat information that was subject to ongoing investigations or prosecutions. The release on Tuesday is an unclassified version of a sensitive report issued in January. It is the seventh in a series of reports put together by GAO focused on January 6, 2021.

January 6 Capitol

FBI, Capitol Police Shrugged Off ‘Credible Threats’ Before Jan. 6, Says Watchdog

FBI And Capitol Police Identified 'Credible Threats' But Fumbled In Run-Up To January 6: Report

Capitol Police

Congress

January 6

Not only did the glut of coronavirus-tied bailouts likely result in billions of dollars of fraud, but it happened because government agencies in many cases did not take even basic steps to prevent it, and in other cases have declined to try to claw back improper payments, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday.
In a searing, comprehensive <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106556" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, the nonpartisan auditing arm of Congress excoriated the administration of almost every pandemic-era spending program—and Congress itself—for doling out $4.6 trillion with the prospect of fraud seemingly an afterthought.
Three years after the pandemic began, rampant fraud turned out to be very much a reality.
Unemployment fraud. Coronavirus-era programs flooded cash into a program that already has one of the government&#8217;s highest rates of improper payments: unemployment checks. Non-coronavirus <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thousands-of-pandemic-unemployment-claims-listed-the-names-of-still-employed-government-workers-senator-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unemployment checks</a> already had an improper payment rate of nearly 19% in fiscal year 2021 and more than 22% in 2022. Coronavirus programs flooded this with even easier access to even more cash, with $873 billion in checks to people who said they were laid off or had hours reduced because of coronavirus. In the best-case scenario&#8211;that coronavirus unemployment checks were no more fraudulent than the lower 2021 non-coronavirus value&#8211;&#8220;at least $163 billion in pandemic UI benefits could have been paid improperly,&#8221; the GAO said.
And that’s likely a vastly optimistic scenario, because the coronavirus unemployment program “allowed applicants to self-certify their eligibility and did not require them to provide any documentation of self-employment or prior income.” The Department of Labor, which administers the program, also encouraged states to waive a standard 21-day waiting period—the period in which anti-fraud scrutiny often occurs.
Even as it dramatically loosened controls on a program that already had an atrocious rate of improper payments, the Department of Labor did not have a dedicated fraud unit in place, and more than two years after the GAO first warned of the problem in October 2021, DOL said it was merely “in the process” of “proceeding with implementing” the recommendations—long after the pandemic has ended, according to the GAO.
PPP loans. The most prominent coronavirus bailouts—forgivable PPP and EIDL loans for businesses—were administered by the Small Business Administration, which did not even set up an anti-fraud entity until after the program was done giving out money, GAO said.
“SBA did not designate a dedicated antifraud entity until February 2022. This new entity—the Fraud Risk Management Board—is to oversee and coordinate SBA’s fraud risk prevention, detection, and response activities. Further, in March 2021, we found that SBA had not conducted fraud risk assessments for PPP and the COVID-19 EIDL program and recommended that it do so. When SBA developed its fraud risk assessments for the programs in October 2021, PPP had already stopped accepting new applications and the COVID-19 EIDL program would stop at the end of that year,” it wrote.
EIDL. PPP and EIDL together paid out nearly $1 trillion. Yet Congress explicitly blocked SBA from using tax returns to verify a business’s eligibility for EIDL loans, even though it is a highly relevant piece of information. “As a result, SBA relied on self-certification,” GAO said.
GAO reviewed a sample of loans processed without consulting tax returns and found that “about half of them” should not have been approved.
Congress removed the restriction nine months later, but SBA still didn’t bother verifying applications using tax returns in a timely manner. “Specifically, the SBA OIG found that for about 4 months after Congress removed the tax return prohibition, SBA made 133,832 COVID19 EIDL disbursements, totaling about $8.5 billion without proving applicant eligibility using official tax information,” it said.
Congress. While one might assume that agencies should not have to be told to try to mitigate fraud, Congress explicitly removed legal requirements relating to policing fraud from massive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/100b-bonanza-pfizer-reports-record-sales-profits-behind-covid-vaccine-oral-treatment">coronavirus</a> appropriations bills. “Although federal laws have required agencies to submit specific internal control plans for relief funds in previous emergencies, there was no such requirement for the COVID-19 pandemic,” GAO wrote.
The Fraud Reduction and Data Analytics Act of 2015 and the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 “required agencies to report on their antifraud controls and fraud risk management efforts in their annual financial reports,” but that requirement ended in 2020 and has not been renewed by Congress.
Nearly half of states didn’t even try to get wrongly-paid benefits back. In May 2021, the Department of Labor’s inspector general found that when 19 states overpaid someone’s unemployment benefits, they did not even attempt to get the money back. “From April 2020 through September 2022, states and territories reported about $48.6 billion in overpayments across the UI programs,” GAO said.
No attempt to screen fraud in program that prioritized minority restaurant owners. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund attracted scrutiny for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-restaurant-relief-program-excludes-white-male-owners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">excluding white males</a>, a provision that a judge ruled was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/court-strikes-down-racial-gender-preferences-in-bidens-1-9-trillion-covid-relief-bill-that-discriminated-against-restaurant-owners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unconstitutional</a>. The program also seemed to go out of its way to cater to minority fraudsters. While SBA, which ran the program, collected data that could be used to screen for fraud, the agency told GAO flatly that “they were not analyzing these data to detect potentially fraudulent recipients.”
Provider Relief Fund. This program, oddly enough, paid doctors and nurses who said they had lost business because of the nationwide medical emergency. In October 2021, GAO found that the Department of Health and Human Services did not even have procedures in place to recover overpayments. “While it took initial actions to address this recommendation, [HHS] suspended its post-payment recovery efforts in March 2022” to explore whether it even had the authority to claw back wrongfully-paid money. “According to HRSA, the agency is still in the process of determining its authority to recover overpayments” in some scenarios.
Emergency Rental Assistance. Another wildly controversial program involved rent payments. The program was administered by the U.S. Treasury. GAO “identified potentially duplicative emergency rental assistance payments but found that Treasury had not conducted a detailed risk assessment of the program’s susceptibility to improper payment, for example, by reviewing grantee payment data.” Treasury seemed uninterested: “Officials did not commit to additional steps to assess or address improper payment risks because of resource limitations.”
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-496616" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/gao-improper-payments.png" alt="" width="940" height="485" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/gao-improper-payments.png 940w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/gao-improper-payments-300x155.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/gao-improper-payments-768x396.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></div>
Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. The US Department of Agriculture paid $31 billion to farmers “to offset losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. GAO “reviewed claims of 90 producers with risk factors for improper payments and found that over half of these producers did not provide full support for their payments, potentially making it harder to identify payment errors and fraud.” It provided recommendations to USDA, but “the agency has not yet taken action to implement these recommendations.”
Affordable Connectivity Program. “In January 2023, we found that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had not developed an antifraud strategy to address identified fraud risks associated with the Affordable Connectivity Program,” GAO wrote.
The Office of Management and Budget said that federal agencies wrongfully paid out some quarter-trillion dollars in fiscal 2022. But GAO said even that shocking sum significantly understates it: OMB&#8217;s figure doesn&#8217;t include some of the most integrity-challenged programs, including pandemic uninsurance, food stamps, and welfare.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thousands-of-pandemic-unemployment-claims-listed-the-names-of-still-employed-government-workers-senator-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Thousands Of Pandemic Unemployment Claims Listed The Names Of Still-Employed Government Workers, Senator Says</a>

Money

Agencies, Congress Didn’t Even Try To Stop Fraud In $4T Coronavirus Bailout, Audit Finds

Federal Agencies Didn’t Even Try To Stop Coronavirus Fraud, Blistering GAO Audit Says

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Relief

Fraud

Small Business Administration

On Friday, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, a constitutional attorney by training who has been a <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/19/alexander-vindman-condemned-himself-in-his-impeachment-testimony/">frequent</a> <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/26/why-trumps-ukraine-demands-werent-remotely-illegal/">commentator</a> on Democrats&#8217; current partisan <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/12/13/obstruction-of-congress-is-an-utterly-ridiculous-impeachment-charge/">impeachment</a> <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/12/19/pelosis-newest-dirty-trick-putting-trumps-senate-trial-on-hold/">effort</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-HnMAHs3-c">joined</a> “Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler” on One America News Network (OANN) to discuss the recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) purporting to show that, by initially withholding the disbursement of foreign aid money to Ukraine last summer, President Donald Trump violated the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA). It is this withholding of Ukrainian foreign aid money that forms the crux of the Democrats&#8217; impeachment push.
As The Daily Wire initially <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-it-gaos-report-on-white-house-withholding-ukraine-aid-violated-law">reported</a> last Thursday, the officially nonpartisan GAO claimed that Trump violated the ICA and, by implication, also the <a href="https://www.heritage.org/constitution/articles/2/essays/98/take-care-clause">Take Care Clause</a> of Article II of the Constitution. “Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” the GAO report asserted, as The Daily Wire reported. “[The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)] withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted under the [ICA]. The withholding was not a programmatic delay. Therefore, we conclude that OMB violated the ICA.”
Hammer penned an <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/17/trumps-ukraine-money-holdup-doesnt-make-for-an-impeachable-breach-of-the-law/">op-ed</a> in Saturday&#8217;s New York Post in which he argued that &#8220;Trump likely did not violate the ICA,&#8221; but that &#8220;even if he did breach it, that law itself comes with its own remedy baked in — and it is a far less draconian remedy than impeachment.&#8221; He then elaborated:
<blockquote>
To be sure, expressly directing a subordinate to violate federal law is inconsistent with the Take Care Clause. But the president also has other obligations under Article II of the Constitution. The very first clause of Article II vests the president with “the executive Power.” The doling out of foreign aid is an integral part of conducting foreign affairs, and, according to a 2001 Yale Law Journal article by legal scholars Saikrishna Prakash and Michael Ramsey, 18th-century English common law — which helped form the Framers’ thinking — had an “ordinary &#8230; meaning of executive power” that “included foreign affairs power.”
Similarly, in the 1936 Supreme Court case U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., the justices describe the president as “the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations — a power which does not require as a basis for its exercise an act of Congress.” &#8230;
[Furthermore,] as my boss at The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, quickly observed after news of the GAO report hit, the ICA prescribes a precise remedy for a situation in which the president allegedly violates it. Specifically, 2 U.S.C. § 687 provides for a cause of action by the comptroller general in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. But since the funds have been released, any legal action would be moot.
</blockquote>
On Friday&#8217;s OANN appearance, Wheeler began by asking Hammer whether the alleged ICA violation is impeachable. Hammer strongly opined that it should not be viewed as impeachable, and went on to describe the current Democratic mentality and antics as &#8220;desperate,&#8221; &#8220;reckless,&#8221; and &#8220;borderline dangerous&#8221;:
<blockquote>
The Impoundment Control Act in 1974 actually provides for a precise remedy within the statute. So a lot of people are talking about this as a possible impeachment vehicle, but it is a deliberate, disingenuous, bad faith effort to attempt to impeach as a draconian remedy where the statute itself has the savviness and the foresight to provide for a much lesser remedy.
And let&#8217;s talk about that remedy. It&#8217;s [title] two of the United States Code, then sub-section 687, I believe. The remedy is the Comptroller General of the United States is allowed to file suit in the federal trial court in the District of Columbia to force the president, essentially, to disburse the funds. Liz, here&#8217;s the problem with that: The funds have already been disbursed! They were released and there was barely any delay. So even according to the statute&#8217;s own remedy — according to the statutory structure &#8230; it&#8217;s a moot case. In law school, you learn this is called a moot lawsuit because the funds were disbursed. Ukraine didn&#8217;t even know that the funds were being withheld.
So all of this is starting to remind me a lot of the whole [Brett] Kavanaugh [Supreme Court nomination] fiasco, where they would just throw mud at the wall and see what sticks. You know, we talked about [how] the Democrats first were talking about quid pro quo, [but] that didn&#8217;t poll-test well. Then they were publicly flirting with bribery and they knew they didn&#8217;t have the legal gravitas to make that argument. They are just so desperate, at this point. Swing state poll after swing state poll shows they&#8217;re gonna lose next November — Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, all these voters are starting to turn against the Democrats. And this is really starting to get reckless; it&#8217;s actually borderline dangerous, at this point, I would say.
</blockquote>
Wheeler agreed, saying that the Democrats do routinely &#8220;move the goalposts.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="The Truth About The GAO Report" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G-HnMAHs3-c?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hammer OANN 1.17.20

WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: The Truth About The GAO ‘Bombshell’

Constitution

Donald Trump

Impeachment

Federal investigators late last year attempted to illegally purchase firearms online after congressional members asked them to assess how well the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was doing with the enforcement of existing laws.
The findings were stunning.
Investigators with the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) were dispatched to see whether private online sellers were engaging in selling firearms to people who are prohibited from owning firearms. The investigators attempted dozens of times to illegally purchase firearms from online sellers on the &#8220;surface web&#8221; (i.e. not the dark web), but were completely unsuccessful — going 0 for 72.
Key takeaways from the GAO&#8217;s <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/688535.pdf">report</a>:
<ul>
<li>The GAO attempted 72 times to illegally purchase a firearm on gun forums and other classified ads.</li>
<li>They were unable to obtain any firearms.</li>
<li>29 sellers stated they would not ship the firearm.</li>
<li>27 refused after they learned that the attempted buyer was prohibited from buying.</li>
<li>In 5 instances, the accounts the GAO set up were frozen by the websites, which prohibited them from even accessing the forums.</li>
</ul>
Investigators also attempted to purchase firearms on the &#8220;dark web,&#8221; which is not used by most people and cannot be accessed through standard internet browsers. In these attempts, they did not disclose any information about whether they were prohibited from purchasing firearms.
The GAO attempted seven purchases on the dark web and successfully obtained two firearms, an AR-15, and an Uzi. The GAO did not make any recommendations in their report about any actions the ATF should take.

FAIL: Investigators Tried To Illegally Buy Guns Online. Here’s How Many They Obtained.

Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)

Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

Gun Control

Gun Sales

Tobacco

Special counsel Robert Mueller has had a rough week as his credibility has taken a substantial hit after a <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/24301/breaking-key-fbi-agent-involved-russia-ben-shapiro">report</a> revealed that an anti-Trump FBI agent was highly involved in key aspects of investigations into President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Now more questions are emerging concerning Mueller&#8217;s record, including his past use of government resources for personal travel when he was FBI director and his use of costly government resources for work-related travel that marked a significant departure from his predecessors.
Mueller&#8217;s past use of government resources for travel is relevant considering that Trump&#8217;s Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign after an investigation by <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/21/tom-price-private-charter-plane-flights-242989">Politico</a> revealed that Price took at least 24 flights on private charter planes at the expense of taxpayers to the tune of over $300,000 for work-related flights.
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/11/AR2007061102321.html">The Washington Post</a> reported in 2007 that the FBI asked Congress for $3.6 million &#8220;in the war spending bill&#8221; to ensure that its $40 million Gulfstream V jet could continue to fly critical counterterrorism missions into Iraq:
<blockquote>
But the jet that the FBI originally sold to lawmakers in the late 1990s as an essential tool for battling terrorism is now routinely used to ferry FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to speeches, public appearances and field office visits.
In fact, Mueller&#8217;s travel now accounts for nearly a quarter of the flight time for the lone FBI jet able to make international flights.
FBI officials acknowledged to The Washington Post that Mueller&#8217;s use of the Gulfstream is a marked departure from the travel practices of his predecessors, such as Louis J. Freeh, who flew commercially or used a smaller Cessna Citation jet.
</blockquote>
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) slammed Mueller for misusing government resources and asked for an explanation from the FBI, but never received a response.
&#8220;Using this FBI jet to get to speaking engagements when the plane is intended to help fight terrorism is a good way to lose congressional approval of a necessary resource,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If the FBI wanted a jet to fly the director around, then it shouldn&#8217;t try to justify the plane as a weapon in the war on terror.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/27/fbi-jets-for-war-on-terror-used-for-top-officials-/">The Washington Times</a> reported in 2013 that an investigation by the Government Accountability Office revealed Mueller used the FBI&#8217;s Gulfstream V jet for personal travel:
<blockquote>
The bureau&#8217;s state-the-art, sleek Gulfstream V jets logged 60 percent of their hours between 2007 and 2011 on &#8220;non-mission flights&#8221; that cost taxpayers $11.4 million, <a href="https://www.washingtonguardian.com/sites/default/files/fbi_jet_02-27-13_gao_report_final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to an investigation</a> by the Government Accountability Office obtained by the Washington Guardian.
The travel included 88 personal trips for Holder and former Republican Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who stepped down in 2009, and 10 for Mueller, the review found. Taxpayers were reimbursed only pennies on the dollar for those personal trips under the current rules, the audit found.
</blockquote>
Mueller was added to a list of officials that were required to fly on government planes full-time &#8212; including for personal travel &#8212; but did so using the most expensive option possible:
<blockquote>
The FBI, however, had a smaller Citation jet that was used for years to transport former FBI Director Louis Freeh on business trips, as well as a Haviland Dash 8 turboprop that other officials have used. Those are much cheaper to operate. But since 2007, those smaller aircraft were used only about a third of the time for Mueller, Holder and Mukasey, as the bureau opted for the larger, more luxurious Gulfstream counterterrorism jets for executive travel, the GAO found.
A key senator said Wednesday the diversion of the counterterrorism jets for everyday travel, especially personal trips, runs contrary to the purpose that Congress approved the aircraft and costs taxpayers needlessly when cheaper options are available.
</blockquote>
The GAO found that the FBI&#8217;s Gulfstream V jet was only used approximately 40% of the time for its original intended purpose &#8212; counterterrorism missions &#8212; and during Mueller&#8217;s tenure as FBI director, the agency scrapped the economically efficient Citation jet in favor of the costlier and more luxurious Gulfstream V jet.
Grassley, who was then on the Senate Finance Committee, again called Mueller&#8217;s FBI out for the way that government resources were being wasted at the expense of taxpayers.
&#8220;They don&#8217;t have to travel in the Gulfstream if they&#8217;ve got Citations, particularly if it&#8217;s for personal use,&#8221; Grassley said &#8220;When you&#8217;re going to some private event or personal event, that&#8217;s unrelated to your government service, and you&#8217;re using these planes, you ought to take the cheapest method of travel you can.&#8221;
The Daily Mail <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2286109/Attorney-General-FBI-chief-spend-11MILLION-flying-luxury-jets-bought-counter-terrorism-missions-2007-2011.html">noted</a> that the GAO&#8217;s report indicated that the flights on the Gulfstream V jet &#8212; which cost $1,300 more per hour to operate than the Citation jet &#8212; cost taxpayers an average of $16,285 per flight. Based on that average, Mueller&#8217;s ten flights for personal travel cost taxpayers approximately $162,850 &#8212; of which Mueller only <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/27/fbi-jets-for-war-on-terror-used-for-top-officials-/">reimbursed</a> taxpayers $4,556 or 2.79%.
Mueller&#8217;s irresponsible spending is a relevant point to consider given the fact that he has <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/5/muellers-russia-probe-cost-32m-first-four-months/">spent</a> nearly $7 million in taxpayer funds during the first four months of his investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election &#8212; an investigation that has yielded no results in terms of any collusion-related crimes committed by the campaign, during the campaign.
The Times report on Mueller&#8217;s personal travel using the FBI&#8217;s Gulfstream V jet also mentioned another costly and wasteful use of the taxpayer&#8217;s money:
<blockquote>
The FBI jets are kept at a secret location outside Washington and must be flown each time to Reagan National Airport to pick up Mueller and Holder. The cost of those brief transitional flights was $1.5 million between 2007 and 2011 &#8212; roughly 10 percent of the total cost of all their flights.
</blockquote>
Grassley again slammed the former FBI director for the FBI&#8217;s reckless spending of taxpayer money for these &#8220;positioning flights&#8221; that the agency claims were needed.
&#8220;[This] show[s] the whole ridiculousness and the waste of money in this particular case,&#8221; Grassley said. &#8220;So you keep these planes hidden, someplace close to Washington, D.C., I assume. You fly them from there to Reagan to pickup the people who are going to fly, when car travel would save these millions of dollars that&#8217;s wasted.&#8221;

FLASHBACK: Robert Mueller Used Counter-Terrorism Jet For Personal Travel, Wasted Taxpayer Money

Robert Mueller

Tom Price

Trump Administration

President Barack Obama has another scandal on his hands that the media will conveniently ignore or bury in their news coverage. This scandal involves the Environmental Protection Agency breaking the law &#8230; again.
The nonpartisan <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/263166-epa-broke-the-law-in-lobbying-for-water-rule-investigation-finds">Government Accountability Office</a> issued a report saying that the EPA broke the law by promoting its new &#8220;Waters of the United States&#8221; regulation through Thunderclap and a blog post written by Travis Loop, one of the agency&#8217;s public affairs officers. The post linked to environmental activists groups and encouraged people to &#8220;tell Congress to stop interfering with your right to clean water.&#8221;
&#8220;We conclude that EPA&#8217;s use of Thunderclap constituted covert propaganda, in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition,&#8221; the GAO wrote. &#8220;We also conclude that EPA hyperlinks to the [Natural Resources Defense Council] and Surfrider Foundation webpages provided in the EPA blog post constitute grassroots lobbying, in violation of the grassroots lobbying prohibition.&#8221;
According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/us/politics/epa-broke-the-law-by-using-social-media-to-push-water-rule-auditor-finds.html">The New York Times:</a>
<blockquote>
Federal agencies are allowed to promote their own policies, but are not allowed to engage in propaganda, defined as covert activity intended to influence the American public. They also are not allowed to use federal resources to conduct so-called grass-roots lobbying &#8212; urging the American public to contact Congress to take a certain kind of action on pending legislation.
</blockquote>
It&#8217;s pretty clear-cut that the EPA broke the law. But that hasn&#8217;t stopped the EPA from trying to spin it.
&#8220;We maintain that using social media to educate the public about our work is an integral part of our mission,&#8221; EPA spokeswoman Monica Lee told The Hill in the statement. &#8220;We have an obligation to inform all stakeholders about environmental issues and encourage participation in the rulemaking process. We use social media tools just like all organizations to stay connected and inform people across the country about our activities.&#8221;
<blockquote>
&#8220;We conclude that EPA&#8217;s use of Thunderclap constituted covert propaganda, in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition.&#8221;
Government Accountability Office
</blockquote>
The EPA&#8217;s Thunderclap message read, &#8220;Clean water is important to me. I support E.P.A.&#8217;s efforts to protect it for my health, my family and my community.&#8221; <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/05/31/thunderclap-a-new-tool-for-amplifying-your-tweet-into-a-sonic-boom/">Thunderclap</a> is a social media platform that amplifies tweets to increase the possibility of the tweet going viral, so by using it the EPA was trying to ensure that their water rule was promoted throughout the bowels of the Internet.
Here is how Loop concluded his <a href="https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2015/04/tell-us-why-cleanwaterrules/">blog post</a> on the water regulation:
<blockquote>
People often ask me about the best thing they can do for clean water. I say to spread the word about how much it matters to you and your family and friends. Here is an easy way to do that:
<ul>
<li>Take a photo holding this #CleanWaterRules sign.</li>
<li>Post it to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with #CleanWaterRules and give your reason why.</li>
<li>Encourage family and friends to do the same.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
In both instances, anybody who is literate can see that the EPA is advocating in favor of their water regulation rather than simply informing people about it. The law was clearly broken.
Rick Moran at <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/12/auditor_epa_broke_the_law_in_social_media_campaign_to_push_water_rule.html">American Thinker</a> pointed out that the EPA has broken the law three other times this year:
<ul>
<li>The EPA collaborated with environmental advocacy groups to promote carbon regulations.</li>
<li>The agency gave the green light to a pesticide&#8211;illegally.</li>
<li>The EPA ironically polluted a river because of their meddling with a mine that caused a toxic spill.</li>
</ul>
The EPA&#8217;s water regulation is also burdensome and doesn&#8217;t fight against water pollution, according to Daren Bakst at <a href="http://dailysignal.com/2015/12/14/report-epa-broke-federal-law-with-covert-propaganda-on-social-media/">The Daily Signal:</a>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The rule hurts the environment by keeping states from taking a leading role in water protection (contrary to the express language of the Clean Water Act).</li>
<li>The rule is an attack on property rights by making it more difficult for property owners to use their property even for ordinary activities, such as farming.</li>
<li>The rule is so vague that property owners may not even know they could be violating the law.</li>
<li>The opposition to the rule (based on various reasons) is wide and diverse and comes from farmers, ranchers, manufacturers,small businesses, counties, and home builders. Attorneys general and agencies from at least 31 states have sued the federal government over the rule. Even environmental groups have sued the federal government over the rule.</li>
<li>The Corps itself was expressing serious concerns in memos to the EPA about the rule shortly before it was released.</li>
<li>There are a lot more legal issues with the rule than EPA&#8217;s advocacy-related actions. The Sixth Circuit issued a stay in October blocking implementation of the rule, stating, &#8220;we conclude that petitioners have demonstrated a substantial possibility of success on the merits of their claims.&#8221; This stay though could always be lifted; after all, the Court hasn&#8217;t even decided whether it has jurisdiction to hear the case.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
There are mainstream media news outlets that are reporting on the EPA&#8217;s scandal&#8211;such as the Times and <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/s/126038/audit-epa-used-covert-propaganda-water-rule-campaign">National Journal</a>&#8211;but the bias in their reporting can be seen in how they bury it. The Times, for instance, had the EPA scandal story on the front page of their <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.html">Dec.14 edition,</a> but it was sandwiched in between two stories on the bottom half of the paper&#8217;s front page. The headline used in the paper was &#8220;E.P.A. Faulted With Online Blitz On Water Rule,&#8221; in between stories with the headlines &#8220;Muslim Youths in U.S. Feel Strain of Suspicion&#8221; and &#8220;Low Rates May Stay For Years After the Fed Reverses Course.&#8221; The latter two stories easily received more space. The website version of the article now has the headline, &#8220;E.P.A. Broke Law With Social Media Push For Water Rule, Auditor Finds.&#8221;
Most importantly, nowhere in the stories of the EPA in the Times, National Journal, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/auditors-epa-broke-law-social-media-blitz-water-35763400">ABC News,</a> and the <a href="http://www.cbs46.com/story/30743262/auditors-epa-broke-law-in-social-media-blitz-on-water-rule">Associated Press</a> do they hold the Obama administration accountable. They make reference to the water rule as the Obama administration&#8217;s rule, but the scandal is the EPA&#8217;s scandal and Obama himself is not questioned.

Hey, Look, It’s Another Obama Administration Scandal The Media Will Ignore

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Menu

GAO