Lawmakers Review Tools to Prevent Federal Fraud

And lawmakers are now looking at how they can better detect and prevent federal fraud before it happens. >> This comes in the wake of massive fraud allegations in Minnesota. Here's more on yesterday's hearing. >> House Republicans are increasing scrutiny of massive alleged fraud in Minnesota's social service system, pressing for systemic reforms. At a hearing yesterday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comr said the fraud led to more than$9 billion dollars being stolen from American taxpayers. Homer suggested that weak safeguards allowed fraud to flourish and taxpayers to be robbed. >> Much of this fraud occurred because there were no proper safeguards put in place to prevent fraud before the funds were paid. There was also too little oversight on how the money was used once it went out the door to recipients. >> He blamed the Biden administration for rushing out federal funds without guardrails in place, saying Republicans repeatedly warned this would invite abuse. Congressman Pete Sessions said agencies are incentivized to pay fast instead of stopping fraud early. are incented to make quick payments and to try and figure things out later. As we have seen countless times, this approach needs to be looked at and changed. He urged Congress to find out how to transition the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee or Pac to fraud detection and prevention. During the hearing, lawmakers questioned PRA on how advanced analytics can stop the theft of taxpayer dollars. The hallmark of most fraud schemes is that people hide information. So leveraging data analytics allows us to see patterns, trends, anomalies, hidden connections to shine a bright light on what's actually happening. That is the path forward. >> A Treasury Department official testified on the limitations currently preventing them from stopping suspicious payments. >> One of the pieces that we are missing is the ability to ping authoritative federal databases to confirm a pay ID such as a tax identification number or a social security number. Okay. >> Um so we already received the data, we just can't verify it. >> She said the Treasury has been authorized since 2019 to provide do not pay services to states that administer federal funds, but she said it has been underutilized. That's a system where agencies check various data sources to verify if a recipient should receive federal payments. Meanwhile, one lawyer says Minnesota whistleblowers are providing evidence that could lead to the federal prosecution of Governor Tim Walls. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer spoke to Just the News. He said he expects one or more Minnesota state employees to testify they told Walls about the fraud while it was happening and Walls ignored them. He said that should be enough for criminal charges against the governor. Governor Walls is pushing back on claims that he turned a blind eye to fraud. In several statements, he said his administration has been investigating the issue and for years has been cracking down on fraud.