Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMUCKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the premise of this bill is simple: Criminals and fraudsters should be held accountable for dollars that were illegally obtained, and we ought to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

We can argue, we can talk about how we got here, who is responsible, but I can tell you, as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, Republicans spent the last 3 years pleading with the Biden administration and with Democrats for answers on the impact of unemployment fraud, for ways to stop it, and the steps that we need to recover as much of it as possible. Unfortunately, it fell on deaf ears, and now we have some counts as high as $400 billion that were lost to fraud or improper payments under the program.

That is money that should have been supporting our constituents that were struggling from job loss during the pandemic. Instead, it went to criminals and cheats.

In my district, too many unemployed individuals could not access payments because those benefits had already been claimed by scam artists.

Similarly, for the last two tax filing seasons, many of my constituents have only found out then that they were a victim of identity theft when they got a 1099 in the mail that says they owe taxes on unemployment benefits they never claimed.

Now, they are stuck fighting the IRS to rectify their tax bill and hung out to dry trying to reclaim their identity. Finally, after 3 years, House Republicans are taking this important step today to right this wrong. This legislation gives States both the incentives and the tools needed to prosecute criminals and recover fraudulent payments.

It takes the steps that we should have taken 3 years ago to prevent fraud in the first place. I do want to be clear: This bill is not about taking away employment benefits from those who relied on them, who needed them during the pandemic.

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Mr. SMUCKER. It is not about taking away unemployment benefits for those who relied on them. It is quite the opposite. This bill goes after those who robbed unemployment benefits from those who need it.

Mr. Speaker, I am hopeful that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will recognize that this is commonsense legislation to right a wrong and to protect our constituents and our taxpayers.

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