Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SESSIONS. Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman, the chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, for yielding.

Mr. Comer has begun telling the story about H.R. 8312, Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act, which we today will discuss, but I think it is important that we probably tell a story because this has two tales, but one truth to it.

The bottom line is that our friends, if they oppose this today, it is because they are embarrassed. They are embarrassed about the legislation that they passed, the operation of the Biden administration with the Treasury, and their insistence that we continue allowing unaided opportunity for fraudsters to come and take advantage of the government.

I thank the distinguished gentleman who has encouraged me from the very beginning. He, as chairman of the committee, and I, as chairman of the Government Operations Subcommittee, have worked completely on a bipartisan methodology, since I have become chairman, with the Democrats, holding hearings, understanding not only the problems but the potential answers. The answers that we have come up with completely would sustain themselves under any opportunity for people to look.

The bottom line is that the excuses that are being offered today come from someone who probably does not know many IGs, has probably never spoken to those about some fear that he believes exists.

Madam Speaker, since 2003, the Government Accountability Office estimated that the Federal Government has improperly paid about $3 trillion. That means $3 trillion that was intended for a purpose-- probably a very good purpose--has gone to people who have taken that money for a different reason, and that means it is an unintended payment.

During the 4 years of President Biden, the government lost between $230 and $520 billion each year. While it is easy to say that the predominance of this occurred, really what the President was dealing with was working through issues related to COVID. I need to understand that I do know that this is a fact.

What happened, though, is the Federal Government made sure that Federal Government workers were given opportunities to not come to work. They call it telework, but the bottom line is, they were not there to challenge people who were trying to take advantage of the government, knowing that between $230 and $500 billion was being fleeced from the Federal Government every year.

We know this because the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, known as the PRAC, investigated these payments as they went out the door. They didn't just go out the door; they flew out the door.

The PRAC was established by the CARES Act of 2020 to oversee the $2.2 trillion in pandemic spending. In other words, they added fuel to the fire, $2.2 trillion, knowing they had a problem without an answer.

The Democrats' answer at that time, and still is today, just let the money go--just let it go--because we don't like the way Donald Trump and Republicans are attempting to hold these fraudsters accountable.

The problem is that the CARES Act of 2020 prioritized immediate spending of $2.2 trillion and left the PRAC to figure out why we were losing so much money, who it was. Madam Speaker, it is hard to watch $2.2 trillion go out the door knowing that roughly 25 percent of it will never be found or recovered.

In fairness to the Biden administration, they did recognize the need for an organization that would begin looking at this issue. Today, we take that beyond looking.

The Biden administration failed to quickly set up the PRAC and to stop the fraud. Instead, they prioritized payments and ignored the need to learn who was getting these payments, to establish an organization that would know more about what was happening on their watch. The Federal Government got payment receipt information on how these recipients requested their money. They had the whole story in front of them.

We know that the PRAC, however, is now the answer, and they have been the answer. Since the creation of the PRAC, the PRAC has assisted law enforcement and agency inspectors general and partners across 1,200 pandemic-related investigations, with a potential fraud loss of $2.5 billion.

Today, I am here to tell you, after six hearings conducted by the Oversight Committee and my Government Operations Subcommittee, it is clear that we have a huge number of people defrauding the government, and the PRAC has lots of data and information.

The PRAC has some 1.7 billion pieces of data--names, addresses, emails, cohorts who assisted with that, and other data and information--that was gleaned through the process.

This bill today, H.R. 8312, the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act, will make sure that the PRAC cannot only continue permanently, which my friends, the Democrats, say that they are not against, but it will also allow a placement of a permanent home to alleviate the questions that had come up earlier, and that was who is doing the work.

It has been decided that the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service's financial and integrity services will handle this. They are professionals. They are law enforcement, and they have an eye to fraud.

Finally, this bill makes sure that we are never left without proper oversight of funds. We will make sure that no matter the problems that face this Nation, we will be prepared.

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Mr. SESSIONS. We are here on the floor today with this opportunity to come up with what started as and still should be a bipartisan agreement.

Instead of sending the money out and then chasing it, we are going to run every bit of this data and information through the PRAC of existing people who receive benefits today. We are going to know that just the word alone of fraud is enough not to stop a payment, but to do an investigation, and it will be done by law enforcement professionals who understand not only authority and responsibility, but they understand the taxpayers' needs.

Madam Speaker, I thank you for allowing this bill to come today. I thank the distinguished chairman of our committee, and I want you to know, this bipartisan bill that started that way still has a chance to end that way.

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