Welcome and good afternoon, This is the first hearing of the Subcommittee on Select Education in the 108th Congress, and its topic is one of celebration. It’s a time of new beginnings, with new members and a new ranking member, Mr. Hinojosa, joining the subcommittee. As chairman, I welcome each one of you to this subcommittee. I am also hopeful that this hearing marks a new beginning for the Department of Education, and one that can be sustained into the future. Today’s hearing marks the first time in a very long time that we can actually say with confidence that the Department of Education’s books are in order. In fact, it is the first time since 1997, and only the second time in the Department’s 23-year history, that such a claim could be made. During the final three years of the Clinton Administration, the Education Department failed three consecutive annual audits, and an estimated $450 million was lost to waste, fraud and mismanagement. On January 17th, 2003, the independent auditing firm of Ernst & Young issued an unqualified clean opinion of the Department of Education’s FY 2002 financial statements. This means that the Department’s financial statements accurately reflect the financial results of the Department. It also means that we have come a long way from the days when Department employees diverted $1.9 million in Impact Aid funds from elementary school children in South Dakota, and instead, spent the money on Lincoln Navigators, Cadillac Escalades and real estate. A long way from the time when Department employees bilked the federal government out of thousands of dollars by using government purchase cards to buy furniture and draperies for their homes. And further still from the days when Department employees schemed with contractors in defrauding the government of over $1 million in electronics equipment and false overtime charges for hours spent picking-up dry cleaning and buying crab cakes from Baltimore. Nevertheless, this is not to say that we don’t have room for improvement. We certainly do and we will discuss some of those areas today. But, it is to say that after eight Congressional oversight hearings spanning at least four years, the Department of Education is finally on the right track when it comes to the financial stewardship of taxpayer dollars. The Department’s comeback story should serve as reminder to us all that hard-earned taxpayer funds are just that – hard-earned – and that they should always be spent wisely and on the purpose for which they were intended. However, I would like to note that we would not be able to tell this success story if it weren’t for the leadership of Secretary Paige and his Management Improvement Team. Nor would we be able to envision it without the hard work of our panelists: Deputy Secretary, Bill Hansen and his team – Jack Martin, Bill Leidinger, and Terri Shaw – the Inspector General’s Office, and the General Accounting Office. Thank you all for your diligence. I appreciate the leadership that Secretary Paige and Deputy Secretary Hansen have shown in changing the culture at the Department of Education and working to eliminate the waste, fraud, and abuse that have stolen resources away from this nation’s children. This Administration has demonstrated its commitment to improving our children’s education without squandering precious resources through bureaucratic mismanagement. And with that, I would like to yield time to my new Ranking Member, Mr. Hinojosa, for his opening statement … |