Fighting Fraud Front and Center on Capitol Hill

Ways to cut down on fraud in the federal government were front and center at a recent hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Workforce.

The hearing covered a wide-range of issues including fraud relating to unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic, fraud from Social Security programs, as well as improper payments. Those payments are sometimes hard to distinguish from fraud, because sometimes the government makes the payment in error.

The big takeaway from both sides of the aisle was that more needs to be done to cut down on fraud.

Republicans also used the occasion to unveil a new staff report on fraudulent unemployment claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.

That report found a number of concerns with pandemic unemployment, including finding that some 69 percent of unemployed workers being able to receive benefits greater than 100 percent of their wage and non-wage compensation. It blamed many states for failing to implement anti-fraud measures due to outdated IT systems and staffing shortages.

“We owe it to the American people to identify how nearly $200 billion – as estimated from watchdog, agency, and media reports – were stolen from American taxpayers,” said Subcommittee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX).

The report included several recommendations such as requiring future unemployment claims to provide proof of prior work.

Fraud Scorecard

Meanwhile, members had hoped to roll out a scorecard that measures fraud in federal agencies, but that project is delayed.

Ranking Member Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) said the scorecard will “assess the progress of key government spending programs in reducing fraud and improper payments.”

But Chairman Sessions said the data is just not ready yet.

In particular, there remain issues with data sharing among various agencies.

Still, the idea of a fraud scorecard sat well with the witnesses at the hearing.

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who chairs the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), called the scored an “important step forward.” 

IG Horowitz and other witnesses also urged lawmakers to ensure they extend the pandemic oversight data analytics center.

“It’s already resulted in recoveries that far exceed its operating costs, and it's assisting over 40 law enforcement agencies as they pursue hundreds of fraud cases involving over $2 billion,” said IG Horowitz.

Both parties agreed that regardless of the election outcome, fraud needs to remain a key issue in the next Congress.

Representative Mfume even floated the idea of an “omnibus fraud act.”