Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BELL. Madam Speaker, no one in this Chamber disputes that improper and fraudulent payments are a serious problem. The question before us is not whether to fight fraud; it is how we fight fraud.

If this bill actually does that--and I will give you a hint: It does not. The Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act allows agency officials to block payments whenever they have sufficient reason to believe there is an elevated risk of fraud.

This bill sets the standard so low that any administration can use it to cut off legitimate recipients before a single fact is even proven.

As a former prosecutor and public defender in St. Louis, I know firsthand what fraud accountability looks like. It starts with evidence, not suspicion.

This bill would allow any administration to stop payments for programs it opposes or in States it disfavors, using fraud as a pretext, allowing Trump to target States that disagree with him.

The people who would bear the brunt of payment pauses are the ones who cannot absorb it. These are patients on Medicaid, our seniors on Social Security, working families relying on SNAP, some of the most marginalized of our American brothers and sisters.

We can fight fraud without handing this administration a blank check to weaponize Federal payments.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.

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