Opposition to DOGE is driving Democrats to reject legislation to recover stolen pandemic unemployment benefits.
Opposition to DOGE is driving Democrats to reject legislation to recover stolen pandemic unemployment benefits.
W hile occupied with budget bills to keep the government open and set future spending and tax levels, Congress is also cleaning up past messes. Today, the House is expected to vote on legislation to hold criminals accountable for stealing over $100 billion in pandemic-era unemployment benefits.
All agree on the urgent need for action, but Democrats’ broader hostility to the anti-fraud efforts of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency has driven them to oppose even this commonsense legislation.
The basic facts of pandemic unemployment fraud are staggering and widely accepted. According to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, “The amount of fraud in unemployment insurance (UI) programs during the COVID-19 pandemic was likely between $100 billion and $135 billion.” The Department of Labor (DOL) inspector general testified that the estimated “low end” of improper payments (which includes but goes beyond fraud) is $191 billion, while private experts see a high end of $400 billion. The Joe Biden administration admitted that one of the most widely abused pandemic programs had an astonishing 36 percent improper payment rate.
Despite agreement on the problem, the DOL estimates that just $5 billion in losses has been recovered to date. And unless Congress acts, recovery efforts will halt in a few weeks. That’s because the five-year statute of limitations for fraud expires after March 27 — the fifth anniversary of the law that created these temporary benefits.
The DOL inspector general has been calling on Congress to extend the statute of limitations since 2022 to “provide investigators and prosecutors time to pursue and hold accountable those who . . . victimized the American people during the pandemic.” Failure to act would mean that “many groups and individuals that have defrauded the UI program may escape justice.” According to a new report by the House Ways and Means Committee, the inspector general’s office has approximately 157,000 open fraud complaints and “will be unable to review the vast majority” without an extension.
A bill called the Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act (HR 1156) would extend the statute of limitations for another five years. Sounds like something everyone would support, right? Not so. When the Ways and Means Committee considered the bill last month, every Republican supported it, while every Democrat voted against it.
Democrats’ stated objections included President Donald Trump’s recent firing of the DOL inspector general, and the legislation’s “narrow scope.” Others balked at the legislation’s tiny offset. Representative Mike Thompson (D., Calif.) dissented to covering the $5 million administrative cost of referring additional fraud cases to the DOL and law enforcement agencies by cutting an equivalent amount in unspent program-integrity funds that originated in Democrats’ 2021 stimulus law. But if covering that tiny cost doesn’t constitute an appropriate use of “program integrity” funds, what does?
Such objections are especially tendentious given Democrats’ recent pricy and woke spending initiatives. For example, their partisan 2021 stimulus law prioritized “delivering on equity and racial justice” in paying unemployment checks, offering states $260 million in “equity grants.” It’s hard to imagine that $5 million couldn’t have been better spent by bringing criminals to justice. And if extending the statute of limitations recovers even 1 percent of the more than $100 billion in outstanding losses to fraud, it would cover any projected administrative costs 200 times over.
These minor concerns disguise Democrats’ real objection: their hostility to President Trump’s broader anti-fraud agenda, spearheaded by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. During committee consideration, Representative Greg Murphy (R., N.C.), the only practicing physician in Congress, summarized that the other side’s arguments reflect “Musk Derangement Syndrome.” Such concerns as those voiced by Democrats didn’t exist a few years ago when bipartisan majorities overwhelmingly approved — and President Joe Biden signed — nearly identical laws that extended the statute of limitations for fraud related to other pandemic programs.
Democrats are naturally free to oppose extending the statute of limitations for prosecuting pandemic unemployment rip-offs when this legislation is considered by the full House. But with even some of their own members admitting that they have “fallen out of touch” with most Americans — 70 percent of whom told a recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll that government expenditures are filled with waste, fraud, and inefficiency — that seems like a bad idea for many reasons. Not least is the fact that, without this legislation, criminals “may escape justice,” as the inspector general’s office puts it, despite their having stolen billions from taxpayers.