Fraud Week in the House

By U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman
R-Arkansas

A foundational pillar for a well-functioning democracy is the people’s trust in their system of government. This trust is found when our government acts with integrity, delivers proper use of services created to provide aid and assistance, and stewards taxpayer dollars appropriately, among many other things.

Last week was Fraud Week in the House, and it was a great privilege to be able to work alongside my colleagues to ensure that we root out the waste, fraud, and abuse that take advantage of hardworking Americans, whose hard-earned money is unfortunately used to line the pockets of fraudsters.

We’ve all seen the reports that the federal government loses an estimated $233 billion to $521 billion to fraud every year – that’s about $1,000 to $3,000 that individual taxpayers are losing each year. With that much money at stake, something must change.

Two of the bills passed this week work to provide greater accountability and sturdier safeguards to address the fraud found in our federal government.

It was reported that the federal government made roughly $186 billion in improper payments in Fiscal Year 2025 alone.

The Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act works to ensure the processing of federal payments are made in the right amounts, and to the correct recipient, before the agency awards the funds or the payment is made.

The Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act addresses how fraudsters can abuse our systems during a national emergency by exploiting gaps between agencies, programs, and states. By creating more transparency and closing these gaps, we’re creating more safeguards to catch these bad actors early.

These bills are commonsense solutions. After all, you’d never dole out thousands of dollars to anyone or anything without knowing exactly what it was going toward. And when your taxpayer dollars are the ones being used, it’s our job as members of Congress to make sure the same idea is applied on the federal level.

House Republicans are continuing to root out the waste, fraud, and abuse that has undermined the American people’s trust in the federal government. Last week’s legislation was certainly a step in the right direction, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to continue delivering more wins so that your tax dollars don’t get taken advantage of.

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