House Oversight Committee Chair Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Township) today issued the following statement after the committee heard testimony from Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel. The committee spoke with Hertel about child welfare, the state’s mental health care system, welfare fraud, wasteful spending, and more, outlining issues involving the department:

“It feels like every six months or so, the department is before our House Oversight panel shifting blame, complaining about being underfunded, telling us how things have been cleaned up and addressed, how a law needs to be changed or else they can’t address a specific situation, or that reports where they clearly fell short in their responsibilities didn’t have proper context and that progress has been made. It is a textbook instance of government covering for government.

“But we continue to bring officials from the department back before this committee, term after term, because of consistent failures we are seeing within communities we represent. It continues to happen. This is a department that is tasked with protecting children, families and people’s well-being. It is charged with using taxpayer dollars responsibly and effectively. When things slip through the cracks, lives are impacted. But what we heard today was a semantics argument about what may or may not constitute child neglect. That’s unacceptable.

“A large department using taxpayer dollars comes with large responsibilities. There are only three corporations in the state of Michigan with more gross revenue than DHHS. There’s been nearly a 500 percent increase in the number of people at DHHS making over $100,000 in taxpayer-funded salaries since the director assumed her position. I am simply not seeing enough accountability from this department. Our committee will continue to provide it for the people of our state – including for our most vulnerable who in some instances are dependent on the department for their lives.”