Vance calls on Congress to codify fraud, fund investigations
By Andrew Rice | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Vice President JD Vance called on leaders in Congress to codify more than $230 billion in fraud on Wednesday.
Vance met with House and Senate Republican leaders to discuss the next steps in the White House Fraud Task Force’s efforts to uncover fraudulent federal program spending. He said the task force has identified more than $230 billion in fraud over the last several months, but Congress needed to help enforce it.
He called on leaders to develop legislation that would require data sharing between state and federal governments, increase penalties for bad actors and appropriate more funds for fraud prosecution.
“This effort will fundamentally always have a limitation unless our colleagues in the House and the Senate are working with us,” Vance said. “In order to make this really work, we need our colleagues in Congress to really codify some of this stuff to make sure that it becomes law.”
Vance said data sharing between states and the federal government in welfare programs is poor. He highlighted federal programs, like SNAP, where noncitizens have received benefits.
“We need to know where your tax dollars are going,” Vance said. “If the state of California or the state of New York isn’t going to tell us, we need Congress to force them to tell us.”
Andrew Ferguson, vice chairman of the task force, said federal programs were originally created for a “high trust” society. He said almost all of the executive branch agencies are using artificial intelligence to detect fraud in federal programs.
“Data sharing should be a requirement for participating in these programs because that will unleash the power of American AI ingenuity and innovation in these agencies to stop the fraud before it happens,” Ferguson said.
Stephen Miller, special adviser to the task force, said more than 95% of fraud issues could be solved with increased data sharing and advances in technology. He called for a federal database that verified age, citizenship and criminal records for all individuals registering for benefits programs.
“We should learn a lot about the leadership of that state if they want to protect fraud or they want to protect ordinary Americans,” Ferguson said.
Vance also called on Congressional Republicans to increase penalties against individuals who are convicted of defrauding federal programs. He said fraud crimes are often not prosecuted aggressively.
“We’d like to change those statutes and actually make it harder for people to commit fraud, and make sure that when they do commit fraud, they go to jail and go to jail for a long time,” Vance said.
Miller said most fraud prosecutions under $1 million go unenforced at a federal level. He said mandatory minimum penalties need to be enforced to deter fraud.
“That change alone would be a watershed for fighting fraud, because it would mean that the Department of Justice would be able to, through prosecuting a few hundred or thousand cases in a year, be able to chill the criminal conduct of millions,” Miller said.
Vince Haley, director of the Domestic Policy Council, called on the congressional leaders to secure payment systems for fraud and move toward a federal database to verify benefit eligibility. He also called on leaders in Congress to appropriate funds for more fraud investigators.
Vance echoed Haley’s call for more funding to fight fraud. While he did not list a specific amount, Vance said the task force needs more aid from Congress to continue prosecuting fraud.
“We need a little bit of resources,” Vance said. “Every dollar you give us comes back at least five or tenfold, so it’s a good investment and it’s the sort of thing we need to see happen.”