WASHINGTON — House Republicans began their promised competitive oversight of Biden’s management Wednesday, focusing on what watchdogs described as “indications of widespread fraud” in federal coronavirus relief systems introduced under President Donald Trump.
Republican lawmakers complained that too little attention was paid to the issues when Democrats controlled Congress. Democrats blamed the Trump administration for much of the mess.
More than 1,000 more people have pleaded guilty or been convicted on federal charges of defrauding the myriad COVID-19 aid systems that Congress put in place early in the pandemic. More than six hundred Americans and entities face federal fraud charges.
But that’s just the beginning, according to investigators who testified when the House Oversight and Accountability Committee held its first hearing in the new Congress on fraud and waste in federal spending during a pandemic. Congress approved about $4. 6 trillion in spending for six coronavirus relief bills, starting in March 2020, when Trump was in the White House and adding the $1. 9 trillion package Democrats passed in the first months of Biden’s presidency.
“We owe it to other Americans to shine a soft light on the largest theft of American taxpayer cash in history,” said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. , chairman of the committee.
Gene L. Dodaro, head of the Government Accountability Office, told lawmakers it will be some time before the extent of the fraud is known. The Small Business Administration’s inspector general has more than 500 ongoing investigations into loan systems designed to help businesses with operating expenses. the pandemic. The Department of Labor’s internal watchdog continues to open at least one hundred unemployment insurance fraud investigations each week.
The GAO said the more than 1,000 convictions similar to covid-19 relief fraud are a measure of its magnitude. “In fact, there are indications of widespread fraud, but right now it’s to estimate how widespread it will be,” Dodaro said.
Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general who chairs the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told lawmakers that the amount of fraud and budget wasted “clearly in the tens of billions of dollars. “
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up surpassing $100 billion, but we have a lot of work to do,” Horowitz said. every penny we can. “
Lawmakers were eager to know how many thefts have occurred and what can be done to prevent them in long-term emergency situations.
“We want to find out where that cash went, how much it ended up in the hands of scammers or ineligible participants, and what needs to be done to keep that from happening again,” Comer said.
Twenty inspectors general are working together to investigate pandemic relief expenditures. Horowitz said knowledge research is central to his work.
For example, this week the committee issued a fraud alert related to the use of questionable Social Security numbers to download $5. 4 billion in pandemic-related loans and grants. He said a team of knowledge scientists has tens of millions of applications with knowledge of Social Security. Administration to see if they perfectly matched the SSA records.
“More than 69,000 didn’t,” Horowitz said. This kind of complex knowledge analysis is transforming the surveillance we do. “
To prevent fraud in long-term emergencies, Horowitz has Congress permanently fund the committee’s knowledge analysis center. He said the recent fraud alert identifying potentially $5. 4 billion in fraud is 360 times the annual charge of operating such a platform, so the return on investment for taxpayers is clear.
One of the main drivers of the covid fraud that occurred was wanting to get cash to Americans and businesses as temporarily as possible. Horowitz said it’s critical for agencies to assess applicants’ eligibility before submitting invoices, but the Small Business Administration has allowed entities applying for the paycheck coverage program to self-certify that they are eligible. He said he paid $3. 6 billion to some 57,000 applicants on the federal government’s non-payment list, “a list the SBA didn’t bother to verify. “
The House committee, which plans to read on a variety of hot topics, includes some of Biden’s most vocal critics, as well as some of his most ardent supporters. Biden’s administration had won little or no scrutiny in the last Congress.
“This committee has been on the sidelines for too long while taxpayers were getting paid through bureaucrats whose only priority is getting the cash out,” Comer said.
Information for this article provided by Richard Lardner of The Associated Press.