Posted on 04/02/2026 6:38:32 PM PDT by Libloather
The Department of Education announced Thursday that it has saved American taxpayers more than $1 billion by aggressively eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse within federal student aid programs.
The department’s new report takes aim at previous policies, claiming that while citizens must present identification to board a flight or rent a car, the Biden administration had required identity verification for less than 1% of students applying for federal financial aid.
"That ill-informed decision created a prime opportunity for fraudsters to exploit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form and steal taxpayer funds," the department stated in a press release. "These lax standards allowed bad actors to divert aid intended for low- and middle-income students."
The $1 billion in savings follows a massive overhaul of the system in 2025, which included the implementation of mandatory identity verification for all first-time federal student aid applicants.
According to the department, colleges and universities across the country reported being "under siege" by highly sophisticated fraud rings, prompting requests for the Trump administration to intervene.
The new "enhanced fraud controls" are specifically designed to block AI-generated bots and "ghost students"—fraudulent identities used to siphon taxpayer-funded loans. To ensure applicants are real people, Education Secretary Linda McMahon ordered a comprehensive review of all student aid programs and strengthened real-time data-sharing with the Social Security Administration. This data-sharing initiative alone is credited with saving taxpayers $30 million by preventing identity theft.
Further tightening the safeguards, the Department of Education partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ensure federal student aid funds are not diverted to illegal aliens.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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It’s nice to hear that but the government already spent that billion several times over.
Institutes of higher learing have been ripping off taxpayers for decades.
That’s about one day of the Iran special operation.
These kids just spend 4 to 6 years partying on the taxpayers hard earned money and when the bill becomes due they can’t or won’t pay because stupid degree they got was worthless!
If only a billion was an amount of money that meant anything at the Federal level of debt.
12 hours based on gvt figures so probably in reality about 30 minutes
So what? Every billion saved on fraud takes money away from corrupt democrats. That’s a big win for our side.
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