{"id":2025511,"date":"2023-09-08T06:32:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T10:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/critics-fear-biden-revival-of-pandemic-program-with-high-improper-payment-rate\/"},"modified":"2023-09-08T06:34:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T10:34:26","slug":"critics-fear-biden-revival-of-pandemic-program-with-high-improper-payment-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/critics-fear-biden-revival-of-pandemic-program-with-high-improper-payment-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics worry about Biden&#8217;s revival of pandemic program due to high improper payment rate."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcritics-fear-biden-revival-of-pandemic-program-with-high-improper-payment-rate%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2025511&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The White\u200d House\u200b Faces Scrutiny Over Pandemic-Era Program<\/h2>\n<p>The\u2063 White\u2062 House is facing criticism as it considers reviving elements of\u2063 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/150000-illegal-aliens-massed-at-southern-border-ahead-of-title-42-ending\/\" title=\"150,000 undocumented immigrants gathered at the southern border before the end of Title 42.\">pandemic-era program<\/a> ahead of \u200bthe\u2063 2024 presidential election. The program, known as the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA),\u200d came under scrutiny after \u200da report released by the Department of Labor revealed that more than one-third of expanded \u200cunemployment benefits distributed during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns\u2063 were deemed improper.<\/p>\n<h3>Expanded Eligibility and Improper Payments<\/h3>\n<p>Traditionally,\u2062 unemployment \u2062benefits were \u2063provided\u200d to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-more-details-on-black-market-chinese-biolab-surface-as-politicians-point-fingers\/\" title=\"New revelations on Chinese biolab black market emerge as politicians blame each other.\">full-time \u200cemployees<\/a>.\u200c However, from\u2063 March 2020 to September 2021, the PUA program expanded eligibility to include independent contractors, self-employed workers, and individuals who did not meet the previous qualification criteria.\u200c This expansion resulted in over $100 billion in payments, many of which were later found to be inappropriate.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The Department [of Labor] has reported to the Office of Management Budget that the PUA program had a\u2062 total improper payment rate of 35.9 percent,&#8221; the report reads.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While the report acknowledges that some payments could not be verified as valid and 1.5% were underpayments,\u200b critics argue that the high improper payment \u2064rate is\u200b concerning. Matt Weidinger, \u2063a \u2064senior fellow at the American \u2063Enterprise \u2062Institute,\u2062 states, &#8220;The report buries \u200dthe fact that\u2062 this \u200bprogram was deeply abused, and they also buried the fact \u2064that they \u2063want \u2064to revive the program.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Denials and Budget Proposal<\/h3>\n<p>The White House \u200ddenies \u2062any intention to revive \u2064the\u200c PUA program. White House\u2064 spokesman \u2062Michael\u2062 Kikukawa stated, &#8220;The president\u2019s budget does\u2062 not propose reviving the temporary, emergency Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.&#8221; However, \u200cPresident Joe \u200cBiden&#8217;s budget proposal does \u2063mention\u2062 &#8220;improving benefit levels and access&#8221; to unemployment insurance\u200c and &#8220;expanding eligibility to \u2063reflect the modern labor force.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kikukawa emphasizes that\u200d Biden&#8217;s proposal includes measures\u200b to crack \u200cdown on fraud and \u200didentity theft, aiming to recover funds lost to fraud \u2062during the previous administration. However, specific details regarding expanded eligibility and qualifications remain unclear.<\/p>\n<h3>Controversy and Safeguards<\/h3>\n<p>Weidinger argues that Biden&#8217;s \u200bproposal aligns with the parameters \u2063of the troubled PUA program, stating,\u2062 &#8220;They want to revive PUA, even\u200c if\u2063 they \u2062don&#8217;t\u2063 use those exact words. You don&#8217;t\u200c have to be much of \u200ca sleuth to know what they&#8217;re talking about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Labor\u200c acknowledges that most improper payments\u2064 occurred during the program&#8217;s initial nine\u2064 months, which were under the Trump administration. \u2064Safeguards, including\u200b enhanced identity \u2063verification and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/critics-fear-biden-revival-of-pandemic-program-with-high-improper-payment-rate\/\" title=\"Critics worry about Biden's revival of pandemic program due to high improper payment rate.\">improved information technology systems<\/a>, were implemented\u2064 afterward. Funding from the American Rescue Plan aimed\u200c to strengthen these safeguards.<\/p>\n<p>Despite these efforts, significant\u200b errors occurred. Reports surfaced of a\u2063 Nigerian\u2062 fraud ring that fraudulently obtained hundreds\u2064 of millions of \u2064dollars. California temporarily suspended\u200d applications to its program\u2064 due to a surge in fraudulent activity, with PUA being responsible for the majority of the\u2063 fraud during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<h3>Calls\u2062 for Permanent Program\u200c and \u2063Congressional \u2063Challenges<\/h3>\n<p>Some left-leaning members \u200dof\u200b Congress, \u200bincluding Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) \u200dand Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), have advocated for\u2062 making the\u2062 PUA program\u200d permanent. \u2063However, with Republicans in \u200ccontrol\u200d of the House, expanding unemployment benefits would face significant challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Critics \u200cargue that the report&#8217;s findings do not support these efforts. Weidinger states, &#8220;It struck me as very curious that the administration would report this\u200b very large number \u2062 [of improper payments] in minimalist fashion\u2064 while also calling to revive\u200c that \u2062very same program in the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">Click here<\/a> to read more from The Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The White House may reintroduce parts of a pandemic-era program criticized for making improper payments, as the 2024 presidential election approaches. The Department of Labor&#8217;s recent report revealed that over a third of expanded unemployment benefits distributed during COVID-19 lockdowns were deemed inappropriate. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2025512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2025511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2025511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2025512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2025511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2025511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2025511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}