Here’s How Trump Admin Can Stamp Out Federal Fraud, Save Hundreds of Billion$; House Republican Calls On Government Watchdog to Investigate DOD After Another Failed Audit; Blackburn and Tenney Team for ‘DOGE Acts’ to Cut Federal Waste

By admin On Dec 29, 2024

Here’s How Trump Admin Can Stamp Out Federal Fraud, Save Hundreds of Billion$:

Building 40 aircraft carriers. Constructing 80,000 miles of border wall. Rebuilding a devastated North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene—nine times over.

Regardless of party, most Americans agree that our government can and should use taxpayer dollars more efficiently. But they still might be shocked at the sheer scale of what we simply lose to fraud, let alone at how much worse the problem could get without decisive action from the incoming administration.

Federal agencies lost between $233 billion and $521 billion to fraud each year from 2018 to 2022. This staggering sum represents 3% to 7% of annual federal spending over that period, enough to fund one of the programs listed above every year.

Shockingly, that fraud estimate doesn’t include federal funds lost at the state level.

Behind much of these losses are identity thieves, who use their victims’ personal information to steal benefits like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) aid, small-business loans, and other federal resources intended for Americans in need.

The problem exploded as more government services went digital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Generative artificial intelligence tools repurposed for scams and deepfakes are making it worse.

It’s not just the cost to taxpayers that’s troubling. The human toll of identity theft is devastating. In 2022, 16% of identity theft victims contemplated suicide. As a veteran, I’m also concerned with how military members are especially likely to be victims of identity theft. That’s one reason I founded ID.me, now the nation’s largest secure digital identity wallet, to keep Americans and funds safe. —>READ MORE HERE

House Republican calls on government watchdog to investigate DOD after another failed audit:

A senior House Republican called on the government’s top watchdog Wednesday to investigate the Defense Department after the Pentagon failed its seventh consecutive audit.

Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, who chairs the House Oversight subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce, urged Government Accountability Office chief Gene Dodaro to investigate the Pentagon for “its failure to prevent waste, fraud and abuse.”

“This will allow us to track DOD’s progress toward achieving a clean audit opinion as well as progress in key areas that support a clean audit — the status of DOD financial management system modernization efforts and compliance with relevant legislative requirements,” Mr. Sessions wrote.

The Defense Department receives nearly half of all federal spending, and its physical assets make up over 70% of the government’s physical assets, he wrote. Its annual budget is more than $900 billion.

His request to GAO to continue oversight of the Pentagon comes on the heels of the Defense Department’s announcement last month that it had received a “disclaimer of opinion” for its audit of fiscal 2024. It means that the highest-funded agency in the federal government has failed every audit since the scrutiny was first required in 2018.