Madam Chairman, although it is customary for us thank you for holding a hearing, I want you to know how much I appreciate the work you and your staff have done to expose the use of diploma mills by federal job applicants, current employees, and agencies.
As a teacher, I was disturbed that individuals who turn to diploma mills are cheated out of a real education. As a leading supporter of employee training, I was dismayed that the federal government is wasting taxpayer dollars on worthless programs. The use of taxpayer money to fund diploma mill programs is the very essence of government waste.
At yesterday's hearing, special investigators at the General Accounting Office (GAO) detailed the extent to which federal agencies and senior employees had used diploma mills. A number of questions were raised by the disturbing results of their investigation which I hope we can pursue today.
I was deeply troubled by GAO's revelation that three federal managers with high level security clearances, holding sensitive positions, received degrees from diploma mills. At a time when our nation depends on a strong and credible federal workforce, we must do all we can to ensure that federal employees have the right skills and educational background to carry out their responsibilities.
As such, I am particularly interested in learning from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) what steps it is taking to establish policies and procedures to address fraudulent academic credentials. I am also interested to know how OPM plans to ensure that federal funds are not spent on training at diploma mills. We cannot allow these limited funds to be diverted from federal employees pursuing legitimate degrees to those receiving questionable ones. Neglecting to establish personnel policies that counter the impact of diploma mills threatens the effectiveness of the federal government and affects the safety of Americans.
In addition, the absence of a reliable accreditation verification process threatens the credibility of the government. I am pleased that the Department of Education (DOE) has agreed to develop a database for agencies and managers to use when approving training programs and verifying academic credentials.
Without this information and firm policies and procedures in place, the government is ill-equipped to verify whether an applicant or employee has a degree from an accredited institution. We cannot let such policy and information gaps undermine our nation's security or the integrity of federal programs.
Once again, I wish to commend our Chairman for highlighting the problems posed by diploma mills. I also want to thank the GAO, OPM, and DOE for collaborating on how to best attack the proliferation of diploma mills. With this partnership, I believe we are moving in the right direction to alleviate the use of diploma mills by federal employees and their agencies.
