Golden Fleece Award

Congressman French Hill (R-AR) named the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as the first winner of the Golden Fleece award of 2018 for the mismanagement of manufactured trailers during their response to 2017 natural disasters. In the letter to the FEMA Administrator William B. “Brock” Long, Congressman Hill wrote: January 31, 2018 The Honorable William B. "Brock"… Read more »

Congressman French Hill (R-AR) named the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) as the final winner of the Golden Fleece award of 2017 for wasteful spending and an institutional lack of accountability. In the letter to WMATA General Manager and CEO Paul Wiedefeld, Congressman Hill wrote: Dear Mr. Wiedefeld: I write today to inform you that your agency is this… Read more »

Congressman French Hill (R-AR) named the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as the latest winner of the Golden Fleece award for wasteful spending on an idle data warehouse. OPM has spent over $10 million to build a data warehouse for health claims data from beneficiaries of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB), data that OPM does not have, according to a… Read more »

Congressman French Hill (R-AR) named the Department of Defense (DoD) as the latest winner of the Golden Fleece award for having never conducted a financial audit. An annual financial audit by each federal agency, including DoD, is required by the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990. Further, DoD financial management has been on the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) “High Risk… Read more »

Congressman French Hill (R-AR) named the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as the latest winner of the Golden Fleece award for their wasteful spending on polygraph tests. Earlier this month, an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report found that the CBP had spent more than five million dollars on polygraph tests for job candidates who had previously disclosed disqualifying conduct,… Read more »

Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would receive the Golden Fleece Award for the rash of drug thefts at VA health facilities. Recent data from the Drug Enforcement Administration shows the rate of reported missing drugs at VA health facilities was more than double that of private sector hospitals. Since reinstituting the Golden… Read more »

Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) announced that this month’s Golden Fleece recipient is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during an interview on First News with Kevin Miller. During the interview, Hill stated, “The IRS’ anti-fraud program [is] a really important part of what the IRS does.  Just between 2008 and 2010, they lost $458 billion a year on not capturing… Read more »

Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) wrote a letter to Under Secretary for Health at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and current VA Secretary Nominee David Shulkin informing him that his department would be receiving the Golden Fleece Award for February.   According to a recent audit from the VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that reviewed the VA’s use of… Read more »

Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) announced that the entire Obama Administration would be the recipient of the Golden Fleece Award for January. A recent report from the American Action Forum found that the administration’s last minute environmental and other regulations would cost the U.S. economy $6 billion. Today, in an effort to prevent similar behavior from future… Read more »

On Monday, The Washington Post published a report that Pentagon officials buried evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste in 2015. Following the Post’s reporting, Congressman French Hill announced the Department of Defense (DoD) would receive this month’s Golden Fleece Award. The buried report identified $134 billion of the DoD’s $580 billion budget was spent on overhead and… Read more »