Oversight Democrats Urge Republicans to Support Legislation to Combat Improper Payments
Democrats’ Bill Would Invest in the Proven Data, Technology, and Skills Needed to Reduce Improper Payments
Washington, D.C. (September 10, 2024)— Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, once again urged Committee Republicans to support his legislation H.R. 8009, the Government Spending Oversight Act, following Republicans’ release of a partisan, cherry-picked report focusing on unemployment insurance (UI) fraud in three states. The report ignored studies that previously found similar issues in both Republican and Democratic administrations across the country. Congressional Democrats are focused on ensuring that the dollars Congress invests in lifesaving federal programs—like pandemic-era unemployment insurance (UI)—go to their intended recipients.
“We have known for years that all levels of government need to get better at tracking whether federal dollars spent on protecting paychecks or raising children out of poverty go to those Congress intended,” said Ranking Member Raskin. “We don’t need partisan attacks besmirching Blue States or Red States by retreading well-worn oversight paths when we have the solutions right in front of us. We have to make the necessary investments to prevent fraud before it takes place, prosecute when it does, and build on what works. Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress have consistently condemned these investments, including funding to improve state UI systems and other anti-fraud measures.”
Background:
In the face of unprecedented job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, Congressional Democrats worked with the Trump Administration to expand federal UI by creating four new programs. Expanded UI benefits kept an estimated five to six million people out of poverty in 2020 and kept 6.7 million people above the poverty line in 2021. The programs also helped save the lives of 27,000 people in high-risk occupations between April and December 2020. All temporary, pandemic-related UI programs expired on September 6, 2021.
In the 117th Congress, under the leadership of Democratic Chairman Jim Clyburn, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis conducted extensive oversight of pandemic-related government programs, including UI. As part of this oversight work, and as detailed in its 218-page final report, the Select Subcommittee uncovered how the Trump Administration failed to implement basic safeguards against fraud, leaving pandemic-era programs susceptible to substantial amounts of fraud. The Trump Administration explicitly instructed federal agencies to ignore reporting requirements mandated by Congress in the CARES Act.
Committee Republicans’ core claim in today’s report simply rehashes the same issues Chairman Clyburn’s final report identified two years ago:
“[S]tate unemployment insurance systems, suffering from underinvestment and, in some states, overly restrictive eligibility requirements and low benefit levels, were not equipped to meet the unprecedented job loss inflicted by the pandemic.
States weakened and failed to invest in unemployment insurance systems for decades, particularly since the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Antiquated technological systems and lack of administrative capacity for processing unemployment claims harmed state effectiveness in distributing badly needed relief, prevented state and local governments from effectively adjusting benefit levels to reflect lost earnings, made it difficult to pay benefits in a timely manner during the crisis, and left programs vulnerable to fraud.”
Committee Democrats have long worked to address this issue as part of their commitment to ensuring that government programs are successful at delivering results for the American people. On April 15, Ranking Member Jamie Raskin introduced the Government Spending Oversight Act of 2024 (H.R. 8009), which would place federal inspectors general (IGs) at the center of fraud reduction and provide them tools to lead the government’s efforts to combat fraud in federal programs—including pandemic-related spending. The bill would replicate the successful work of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) by creating its successor, the Government Spending Oversight Committee (GSOC), within the interagency council of IGs. It would authorize GSOC to use data analytics and share staff with IGs, providing additional tools, knowledge, and skills necessary to better combat improper payments and fraud. The PRAC’s data analytics have helped uncover nearly $2 billion in fraud loss to date. Under current law, the PRAC will terminate on September 30, 2025, eliminating a key tool for IGs to uncover fraud in federal government spending.