On Friday, Congressman Barry Moore voted in support of H.R. 1163, the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act. This legislation, sponsored by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, would potentially recover billions in stolen unemployment benefits by providing states with incentives to investigate and recover lost funds.
“Pandemic unemployment fraud might be the largest theft of tax dollars in history,” Rep. Moore said. “Almost half of the $878 billion in unemployment benefits provided by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been lost to fraud. House Republicans say that they are working to recover every dollar stolen from American families.
Rep. Michelle Steel issued a statement applauding the House passage of H.R. 1163. The bill seeks to recoup the estimated $400 billion in fraudulent unemployment payments by incentivizing states to pursue investigations and prosecutions to recover the stolen funds and enables them to invest in system improvements to prevent future fraud.
“As we all now know, pandemic unemployment assistance funds became the source of the greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history,” said Rep. Steel. “Estimates put the total amount of assistance lost to fraud as high as $400 billion. California alone lost around $60 billion under the leadership of President [Joe] Biden’s Secretary of Labor nominee, Julie Su. As Californians in particular continue struggling under spiking prices and high taxes, it is absurd to force them to foot the bill for fraud committed while their elected leaders were asleep at the wheel. That is why I proudly supported the passage of the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act, which will address this unprecedented theft by incentivizing states, including California, to recover these stolen funds and providing tools to prevent future fraud. Government caused this problem, and it owes the American taxpayers a solution.”
H.R.1163, the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act will protect taxpayers by:
1)Allowing states to keep 25 percent of recovered fraudulent overpayments of federal funds.
2) Allowing states to use recovered funds to improve program integrity and fraud prevention.
3) Allowing states to keep 5 percent of state UI overpayments, conditioned on meeting data matching integrity conditions and dedicating those funds to preventing future fraud.
4) Extending the statute of limitations for criminal charges or civil actions from 5 to 10 years.
H.R. 1163 now goes to the U.S. Senate for their consideration.
Barry Moore is in his second term representing Alabama’s Second Congressional District. He is a small businessman who previously served two terms in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2010 to 2018.
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