{"id":2029653,"date":"2023-09-12T17:37:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T21:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/estimate-of-covid-19-unemployment-fraud-revised-up-to-as-much-as-135-billion\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T17:40:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T21:40:30","slug":"estimate-of-covid-19-unemployment-fraud-revised-up-to-as-much-as-135-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/estimate-of-covid-19-unemployment-fraud-revised-up-to-as-much-as-135-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 unemployment fraud now estimated at $135 billion."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/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%2Festimate-of-covid-19-unemployment-fraud-revised-up-to-as-much-as-135-billion%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=2029653&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>COVID-19 \u200dUnemployment Fraud Reaches Staggering \u200d$100\u2062 Billion to $135 Billion<\/h2>\n<p>A recent report from the Government Accountability \u200bOffice (GAO) reveals that COVID-19-related <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/calif-officials-say-10-of-states-unemployment-payments-linked-to-fraud\/\" title=\"Calif. officials say 10% of state\u2019s unemployment payments linked to fraud\">unemployment fraud<\/a> has skyrocketed to an estimated $100 billion to $135 billion. This shocking figure is double the previous \u2064estimates\u2064 provided in testimony earlier this year to both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate\u200b Finance Committee.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I am extremely alarmed by these findings\u2063 and even more \u2063convinced that immediate action is needed to recover as much taxpayer dollars as\u200c possible,&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Ways and\u200b Means\u2062 Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Chairman Smith\u2064 emphasizes the\u200b urgency of the situation, stating \u2062that unemployment fraud not only harms\u200d hardworking Americans who\u200b deserve assistance but also benefits\u200b criminals. The need to retrieve these funds and support law-abiding\u200c citizens is paramount.<\/p>\n<p>The GAO report was commissioned by leaders from\u2063 both\u2064 congressional committees\u200d to \u2064shed \u200blight on the extent of fraud and abuse \u2063involving\u2062 COVID-19 relief funds. \u200dThe report estimates that fraudulent payments accounted for 11% to 15% of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/estimate-of-covid-19-unemployment-fraud-revised-up-to-as-much-as-135-billion\/\" title=\"COVID-19 unemployment fraud now estimated at 5 billion.\">total unemployment insurance \u2062benefits distributed<\/a> between April 2020 \u200cand May 2023. \u200dHowever, the \u200dfull scope \u200dof the fraud may never be \u200bfully known.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;These shocking estimates continue to \u2064grow,\u200b and, as GAO notes, we\u2062 may never know the \u200bfull scope and scale of\u2063 fraudulent pandemic \u200bpayments,&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Senator \u200cCrapo expresses\u200d concern over the expanding\u200b estimates\u2064 and the administration&#8217;s insufficient efforts to \u200baddress the massive amount of fraud \u200cin the\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-says-its-seized-1-4-billion-in-stolen-covid-relief-funds\/\" title=\"DOJ seizes .4B in stolen COVID relief funds.\">unemployment insurance \u200bprogram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In response to this alarming situation, the House passed H.R.\u200c 1163, \u200dthe Protecting\u200c Taxpayer\u2062 and Victims of\u200d Unemployment Act, in May. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hawley-and-blumenthal-introduce-bill-to-exclude-ai-from-section-230-protections\/\" title=\"Hawley and Blumenthal propose bill to remove AI from Section 230 coverage.\">bipartisan bill aims<\/a> to incentivize \u2064states to\u2064 recover fraudulent unemployment payments, extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting fraud\u2063 from five \u2063years to ten, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-introduces-bill-to-recover-billions-in-stolen-unemployment-benefits\/\" title=\"GOP Introduces Bill to Recover Billions in Stolen Unemployment Benefits\">enhance program integrity<\/a> \u200cby allowing states to retain up to 5% \u200dof recovered over-payments for \u200dfuture system abuse prevention.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Crapo introduced a companion bill in his committee\u2062 to further support the \u200brecovery of \u2064stolen funds \u200dand prevent similar large-scale\u2063 theft in the future.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The fraud detailed in \u2064this report represents the greatest theft\u200c of taxpayer dollars \u200bin American \u200chistory, and underscores the dire need for Senate Democrats to take immediate action,&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>-\u2064 Chairman Jason \u200dSmith<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The findings of this report highlight \u200bthe \u200burgent need\u200c for Senate Democrats to address \u2063this unprecedented \u2062theft of taxpayer dollars and take swift action.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\">Click here<\/a> to read more \u2064from The Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Government Accountability Office report suggests COVID-19 unemployment fraud may have hit $100-135 billion, doubling previous estimates. Meanwhile, delve into the details of Kim Jong Un&#8217;s armored train, a massive locomotive used by the North Korean leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2029654,"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-2029653","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\/2029653","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=2029653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2029654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2029653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2029653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2029653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}