Sessions Introduces Bill to Fight Fraud and Promote Accountability in Federally Funded Programs
WASHINGTON—Subcommittee on Government Operations Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) introduced the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act (H.R. 8312) to expand the U.S. Treasury Fiscal Service’s financial and program integrity services and ensure the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee’s (PRAC) anti-fraud data analysis capabilities and resources are maintained in a permanent Inspectors General office.
“This is Tax Season, and millions of Americans are acutely aware how much of their hard-earned pay goes to Uncle Sam. For Uncle Sam to turn around and lose hundreds of billions of dollars to fraud every year is absurd. During COVID, we learned that it is far too easy to commit fraud in federal programs. We also learned that once the money goes out the door to a fraudster, the vast majority is gone for good. I have introduced the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act to ensure the Federal Government places appropriate emphasis on fraud prevention, not just fraud recovery,” said Subcommittee Chairman Sessions.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud. The Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act fights fraud and promotes accountability by establishing a permanent Inspector General (IG) for Fraud, Accountability, and Recovery (IGFAR) in the U.S. Treasury that has a government-wide role assisting individual agency Inspectors General in detecting and mitigating fraud in federal awards over $50,000. The bill also requires the Treasury Secretary to make legislative recommendations to leverage and reinforce existing government-wide anti-fraud resources in any future emergency relief or recovery supplemental appropriations packages to avoid duplicative fraud prevention programs in the future.
Read the bill text here.
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