Though the Department is required to conduct audits of applications
submitted to ensure against fraud, the OIG found that the Department
actually discontinued some types of audits nearly three years ago.
Additionally, the OIG found that the Department did not even audit many
applications which had been selected for either random or targeted
audits.
The OIG concluded:
“The effect of [the DOL] not
auditing applications selected for audit is that fraudulent or
non-meritorious applications may have been certified. Certifying
non-eligible foreign workers could negatively affect the U.S. workforce
by reducing the amount of jobs available for U.S. workers.”
Chairman Miller's letter to Secretary Chao states:
“The
OIG report demonstrates that your Department has failed to properly
implement the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM), a program
that is similar to one you propose in the H-2A and H-2B regulations.
Thus, we worry that the Bush Administration scheme for the H-2A and
H-2B programs could lead to more fraudulent or non-meritorious requests
for temporary foreign guest workers, at the expense of U.S. workers,
with little risk of detection.”
Note: Sensitive information has been redacted from the OIG report.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that 159,000 jobs were lost in September, the steepest decline in five years and the 9th consecutive month of job losses.
Today’s jobs report highlights the massive destruction that the Bush-Cheney-McCain wrecking ball has done to our economy, workers, and families. Eight years of their misguided policies have culminated in nine straight months of job losses. Two million workers have been unemployed for more than 27 months – 167,000 more than in August. Our nation is now dealing with the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
America’s working families are hurting, and in need of real solutions
to get our economy back on track. For starters, we must extend
unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of out-of-work
Americans whose current benefits are set to expire this weekend. Today,
as the House considers a financial rescue plan to protect the credit
that small businesses and families rely on, we will also vote to extend
unemployment benefits to help workers cover their bills while looking
for a new job.
But workers also need a long-term strategy to
generate new jobs. Last week, the House passed a much-needed stimulus
that would create millions of good-paying jobs by investing in our
crumbling infrastructure – an investment that would get our nation back
to work and prevent our economy from falling deeper into recession.
Unfortunately for American families, Senate Republicans blocked the
package.
This latest news underscores the urgent need to ease
the pain of America’s working families and get our economy on the road
to recovery.