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Posted on 10/01/2026 6:39:02 AM PDT by delta7
Each year the federal government loses an estimated $233 billion to $521 billion to fraud. There is no single or simple solution to combat fraud in federal programs, including those administered by states. But, over the years, GAO has identified hundreds of actions federal agencies and Congress can take to better protect taxpayer money from fraudsters and increase public trust in government.
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at nine key actions Congress can take. These actions include passing new legislation, as well as increasing oversight of agency counter fraud efforts.
Millions of Americans receive payments from the federal government—including through Social Security and Medicare, as well as social safety net and disaster assistance programs.
But these payments and programs are susceptible to fraud from people or businesses either pretending to be someone they are not or applying for benefits they don’t qualify for. How can we stop them? We think there are four actions that Congress should take to help prevent fraudulent and erroneous payments.
Eliminate use of self-attestation to determine identity and eligibility for federal programs. Some federal programs allow applicants to self-attest or self-certify their identity and eligibility for benefits. This has helped agencies get money to those who need it as quickly as possible, because they aren’t spending time verifying information.
Self-attestation was used often during the COVID-19 pandemic—but the result was hundreds of billions of dollars lost to fraud. Much of this fraud could have been prevented or more quickly detected if Congress had required agencies to verify identities and information before making payments.
Expand use of Treasury’s “Do Not Pay” program. The Department of the Treasury manages the “Do Not Pay” program. This is a key resource for checking eligibility. It allows agencies to verify recipients against a variety of databases before making payments. But we recently found that only 4% of all federal programs fully use it. Others cite resource constraints and concerns about privacy and data protections as reasons why they don’t.
Additionally, state-administered programs that use federal funding (such as SNAP or TANF) also would benefit from using Do Not Pay. They can access it for free—but aren’t required to do so.
Congressional action could help agencies and states overcome the barriers to using this valuable data source for fraud prevention, while also protecting privacy. Congressional action could also grant the Do Not Pay program access to more data sources, making it an even more powerful resource to combat fraud.
Authorize greater access to the National Directory of New Hires to verify eligibility for federal programs. The National Directory of New Hires contains employment and wage data on nearly every working American, as well as people who receive unemployment benefits. This is an important resource for verifying program eligibility and determining benefit amounts. But very few programs and agencies are legally allowed to access it.
Increasing access to this database, with the appropriate privacy and data protections, wouldn’t only help fight fraud. It would also improve government-wide efforts to identify, prevent, and recover payments made in error (also known as improper payments).
Provide the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with authority to obtain information from states to estimate and report improper payments in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). So far, we’ve discussed government-wide actions to combat fraud. But our work has also looked closely at specific programs. Among them is TANF, a $17 billion program annually. This program is an important resource for families that need help. But more should be done to protect funding from fraud and errors.
HHS oversees this program, which is administered by states. HHS says it lacks legal authority to require states to give it the information needed to estimate how much is loses to improper payments each year. Providing HHS with that authority would increase accountability over TANF payments and allow HHS to collect the information it needs to implement corrective actions and assess their effectiveness in reducing fraudulent and other improper payments.
Earlier this year, GAO experts testified before Congress about the importance of improving TANF oversight. Hear from them in the video below. ...
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How much longer does this go on?
And the ONE way you can do it is by preventing Democrat/DSA majorities in Congress.
Companion article:
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-105833
...No area of the federal government is immune to fraud. We estimated that the federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud....
Note: these figures are from 2024, and have no doubt increased.
Another is to go to a five day work week for Congress.
1st term gets 3 weeks vacation.
2nd term gets 4 weeks.
Successive term get a total of 5 weeks PTO
How about no third term?
It is a giant trough filled with loot! The pigs will find a way to get at it no matter how many barriers or clever obstacles you put in their way. The solution? Shrink the pile of loot! Make it as small as possible! Don’t let people like Bernie Sanders give Government the authority to steal even more!
And mandatory minimum 20 years jail for ANY govt fraud (including vote fraud)
Ok thats 2 things
The Cons in Congress are the fraud.
Cheaper by the dozen, actually.
Another way is to deport all illegals and muslims.
simply require every invoice to be paid, have a spending id associated with the congressionally approved budget item/project, and a vendor-id associated with the approved vendor list that would also match the name and address of the invoice source.
checks would be made payable to the bank and id on file associated with the specific vendor.
this way you know which project/item the invoice is being issued towards and the person/corporation who is to be paid.
somali-joe’s daycare center couldn’t arbitrarily appear as an invoice to be paid for out of the blue.
this isn’t that complicated.
illegals aren’t the only source of fraud.
the roots run deep into democrat NGOs
Agencies Facing the Most Actual Fraud
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) maintains a “High-Risk List”. The government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud, heavily concentrated within the major spending programs of these core departments:
• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): Specifically through Medicare and Medicaid, which suffer tens of billions in improper payments and healthcare fraud annually.
• Department of Labor (DOL): Vulnerable to massive identity theft and fraudulent payouts within the Unemployment Insurance system.
• Department of the Treasury (IRS): Targets of extensive Tax Refund Fraud, identity theft schemes, and the multi-billion dollar “Tax Gap”.
• Small Business Administration (SBA): Exploited heavily via emergency pandemic loan programs (PPP and EIDL).
• Department of Defense (DOD): Plagued by Procurement and Contracting Fraud, including bid-rigging and inflated overhead costs on multi-billion dollar weapon systems.
• Department of Homeland Security (FEMA): Recently designated as a primary high-risk area due to highly fragmented and fraud-vulnerable Federal Disaster Assistance distribution.
Tax-paid government agents and clerks who knowingly or willfully sign off on fraudulent claims can be criminally prosecuted and held civilly liable. Government employment does not grant immunity from committing fraud or conspiring to defraud the public trust.
• Federal False Statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001): It is a felony for any individual—including a government employee—to knowingly and willfully falsify, conceal, or cover up a material fact, or sign a document knowing it contains fraudulent statements. This carries a penalty of up to 5 to 8 years in prison.
• Conspiracy to Defraud the Government (18 U.S.C. § 371): If a government clerk works in tandem with an outside contractor or claimant to push through false bills, they can be charged with criminal conspiracy.
• Honest Services Fraud & Bribery: If an agent signs off on fraudulent claims in exchange for kickbacks, cash, or favors, they can be prosecuted for federal bribery or honest services fraud, which carries up to 20 years in prison.
• The Criminal False Claims Act (18 U.S.C. § 287): Approving or presenting claims against the government knowing they are false triggers strict criminal penalties, including prison time and heavy individual fines.
#1 Remove Gate Keepers that are FRAUD. These Gate Keepers are IT VENDORS. The most obvious is DELOITTE IES Integrated Eligibility System. DELOITTE IES is the #1 Welfare FRAUD and the base for much of the other welfare fraud waste abuse.
#2 White Collar FRAUD of IT VENDORS is FRAUD just as much as Provider and Recipient FRAUD is fraud. This is called out because it is not recognized. Americans have a hard time believing that the college educated high income white collar worker is engaged in fraud. But a fraudulent IT system makes much of the other fraud possible.
#3 Quickie Marts, Medical Clinics, Providers, Recipients are committing fraud. But the bigger fraudsters are those with both State and Federal Contracts with Federal Money. aka the SWAMP.
Simple - STOP funding stupid welfare without accountability or oversight.
Or stop it period.
The “Do not pay” thing sounds good....especially if it were coupled with “armed resistance”.
The “Do not pay” thing sounds good....especially if it were coupled with “armed resistance”.
Basically ,reading all this stuff about fraud is telling me that someone(s) in our government is not trying real hard to enforce “do not pay” which should be the final word.
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