U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL) applauded the passage of the bipartisan Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act, which passed out of the House of Representatives by a vote of 295 to 127.
This bill extends the statute of limitations for combatting and prosecuting the theft of Covid-19 pandemic unemployment benefits. By doing so, it gives law enforcement time to complete current cases, open new cases, and return billions of dollars to U.S. taxpayers. It was set to expire on March 27.
“As Chairman of the Work and Welfare Subcommittee, we have done considerable oversight to investigate the size and scope of unemployment fraud through the pandemic. GAO estimates between $100 and $135 billion, with a ‘b’, was lost to fraud, yet only $5 billion has been recovered. This February, our Subcommittee held a hearing with fraud experts from across the country. One of our witnesses said that as much as 70 percent of fraudulent unemployment benefits went to Russian mobsters, Chinese hackers, and Nigerian scammers,” LaHood said. “Prosecuting bad actors has a ripple effect that will deter crime and prevent additional losses to the government and American taxpayers.”
As chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare, LaHood led a hearing in February on prosecuting fraudsters for stealing billions in Covid-19 pandemic unemployment benefits.
Witnesses at the hearing urged Congress to extend the statute of limitations. It also reinforced that Congress must act now to ensure federal investigators can continue to prosecute fraudsters and recover billions in stolen pandemic unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.