Congresswoman Duckworth Helps Recover Nearly $40,000 in Unpaid Federal Benefits for Eighth District Citizens

The Congresswoman encourages Eighth District residents struggling with federal bureaucracy to contact her office for assistance

SCHAUMBURG–(ENEWSPF)–March 11, 2016.  Continuing her efforts to improve accountability and make government work for the people, in February Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (IL-08) helped recover $39,228 of unpaid federal benefits that were owed to citizens of Illinois’ Eighth Congressional District and encouraged citizens experiencing difficulties receiving owed benefits to contact her office for assistance. Since arriving in Congress, Duckworth has returned hundreds of thousands of dollars from her Congressional office funds to the taxpayer, and during sequestration voluntarily took an 8.4% pay reduction, the same percentage that most discretionary programs were cut by during the sequester. The Congressman was the first Member of Congress to do so, and ultimately returned more than $10,000 of her own salary to the Treasury to be used for deficit reduction.

“Illinoisans should receive every penny the federal government owes them, and they should receive their benefits on time,” said Congresswoman Duckworth.“I’m glad that I was able to help recover these funds for citizens in the Eighth District and look forward to continuing my work to improve government efficiency and accountability.”

During her time in the House, Duckworth has consistently advocated for better government practices, increased accountability and reduced waste while working to support the citizens of the Eighth District. She introduced the bipartisan SERV Act with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) to protect Veterans and their earned benefits from fraud and abuse, and successfully passed legislation to reduce redundancy in Armed Forces uniforms that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has estimated will save taxpayers more than $4 billion over the next 5 years. The Congresswoman is also the author of a bipartisan provision that passed the House which would have improved agency response time to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from citizens and increased agency accountability in cases when deadlines are missed.

Source: http://www.duckworth.house.gov