GOPled House Oversight Committee Targets Fraud In COVID Relief Programs

Representative James Comer speaks during a committee hearing on gun violence control and reform on June 8, 2022.

More than 1,000 people have pleaded guilty or pleaded guilty to federal charges of defrauding multiple Covid-19 aid programs created by Congress in the early days of the pandemic. And more than 600 other individuals and entities have been indicted on federal fraud charges.

That's just the beginning, according to investigators who will testify before a congressional committee on Wednesday, as House Republicans promise a tougher investigation by President Joe Biden's administration.

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee is holding its first hearing on fraud and waste in federal pandemic spending in the new Congress. Congress has approved a total of $4.6 trillion in spending on six coronavirus relief projects since March 2020 during Donald Trump's presidency.

"We owe it to the American people to stop the largest theft of American taxpayer dollars in history," the committee chairman said. James Comer, RK.

The Government Accountability Office will tell the committee that the number of suspected fraud cases will increase in the coming months. For example, the inspector general of the Small Business Administration has more than 500 ongoing investigations into loan programs designed to help businesses cover operating costs during the pandemic. The Labor Department's inspector general continues to open at least 100 unemployment insurance fraud investigations each week.

The GAO said the more than 1,000 convictions related to COVID-19 aid fraud are a measure of its breadth. The GAO also said it did not know how much money was lost to fraud, but an extrapolation of Labor Department data in December suggested more than $60 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance payments during the pandemic. But the GAO cautioned that such extrapolations have inherent limitations and should be interpreted with caution.

However, lawmakers want to know how many thefts have occurred and what can be done to prevent them in future emergencies.

"We need to identify where this money is going, how much of it is going to fraudulent or ineligible participants, and what needs to be done to prevent this from happening again," Kumar said.

About 20 inspector generals are collaborating to investigate the costs of pandemic relief. Michael Horowitz, who chairs the congressional committee created in March 2020 to oversee Covid-19 spending, is also expected to testify.

Horowitz said in prepared remarks that the commission issued a fraud alert this week about the use of more than 69,000 questionable Social Security numbers to obtain $5.4 billion in pandemic loans and grants.

Also testifying was David Smith, deputy director of the US Secret Service's Bureau of Investigation, who predicted that efforts to recover the stolen assets and bring the perpetrators to justice will take years.