Office of Personnel Management Receives For Wasteful Spending On Idle Warehouse

The Golden Fleece Award

ARRA News Service: 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 recent Politico article.

"For an agency that reveals the misuse of tax dollars within the federal government, OPM missed their own mark by wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on a warehouse to store data they don't have," said Rep. Hill. "I question whether OPM should even have access to FEHB beneficiary data after Chinese hackers breached their security system in 2015 and accessed 21.5 million OPM files. I sent a letter to Acting Director of OPM Kathleen McGettigan to raise these concerns with her."

About the Golden Fleece Award
Every year, Congress appropriates trillions of dollars to fund the federal government, and every year the federal government wastes portions of these funds in unconscionable ways. As a Member of Congress, and as a taxpayer, this frustrates me to no end. In an attempt to increase accountability for every single government program, Congressman Hill decided to bring back the Golden Fleece Award.

Originally introduced by Democratic U.S. Senator from Wisconsin William Proxmire in March 1975, the Golden Fleece Award was a monthly bulletin on the most frivolous and wasteful uses of hardworking taxpayers' dollars. The Golden Fleece Award became a staple in the U.S. Senate during this time, and Senator Robert Byrd once stated that the awards were "as much a part of the Senate as quorum calls and filibusters."

In reviving this idea, the Golden Fleece Award will again have the opportunity to serve as an important reminder to taxpayers about the need for necessary, commonsense reforms to our federal spending.

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Tags: Rep. French Hill, R-AR, awards, Golden Fleece Award, Office of Personnel Management, Wasteful Spending Idle Warehouse To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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