News
Public Interest
Apr. 23, 1999
Republican Congressmen Rally to Support LSC
WASHINGTON - A Republican congressman Wednesday rallied to the defense of the Legal Services Corporation, which was attacked several weeks ago by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, just as Congress was beginning its annual appropriations process - and LSC, in turn, was beginning the annual fight for its budgetary life.
Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., circulated a letter to his House colleagues in which he and Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., rebutted charges by Armey that LSC perpetrated "fraud and abuse" on taxpayers by funding legal aid programs - including one in San Diego - that allegedly overreported the number of cases they handled. Armey's "Dear Colleague" letter came after LSC released the results of an internal audit of several of the programs it funds. Legal Services grantees in San Francisco are also being audited by the corporation.
Responding to Armey's allegations, LSC officials and local grantees agreed that the overcount was the unfortunate result of miscommunication and unclear case-reporting policies between the corporation and local grantees - policies since revamped. Ramstad and Delahunt wanted to drive that point home in their letter, which they titled "April Foolishness."
"Audits released last month by LSC's inspector general indicated that five of its 269 local grantees had overstated the number of cases they handled in FY 1997 - chiefly by erroneously reporting telephone referrals as actual cases," they said.
"Critics of LSC have been quick to seize on this information," the letter continued. "Yet the agency itself uncovered the problem through internal, self-initiated audits, brought it to congressional attention and moved expeditiously to correct it. While inaccurate reporting is certainly deserving of scrutiny, these critics have grossly exaggerated both the scope and the significance of the problem."
The congressmen pointed out that the misreported cases in question make up less than 3 percent of the total LSC caseload and chastised the corporation's critics for ignoring "the fact that case numbers have no bearing on funding levels. Allocations are based on the eligible population living in each service area - not on the number of cases handled or referred."
Armey, spurred by a National Legal and Policy Center, a longtime LSC critic, had also chastised LSC's board of directors for spending federal funds on "tropical getaways" at nice hotels in Miami and Puerto Rico. Ramstad and Delahunt dismissed this charge as "spurious."
More than 80 percent of LSC's meetings take place in or near Washington, D.C., they said. "Some meetings take place in other locations," they continued, "selected on the basis of cost, accessibility and facilities - to enable board members to familiarize themselves with the work of local grant recipients. All travel services are provided at government rates."
Puerto Rico Legal Services, they noted, spent 0.006 percent of its federal funds on the conference in question (the conference was on "The Impact of Poverty on the Child and Adolescent").
"The truth is that 97 cents out of every federal dollar appropriated for LSC goes to local nonprofit agencies that provide direct client services," the letter concluded. "That's as it should be, and that's the way it is."
The dueling letters, according to LSC spokesman Mauricio Vivero, "signal that there will be another battle over our appropriation."
For the last several years, a group of congressional Republicans, claiming LSC uses federal funds to finance political activities, has tried unsuccessfully to cut LSC's federal budget in half. It has remained at around $300 million, and Vivero does not expect that to change in the end this year.
"We are confident we've earned the respect of both parties and will get our full budget," he said. "The [Ramstad/Delahunt] letter represents the overwhelming majority of Congress that believes we are a vital part of the justice system."
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Daniel Shaw
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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