A recent House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing managed a unique feat by showcasing the federal government at its best and worst simultaneously. Best, in the sense that lawmakers drew attention to a potential opportunity for taxpayers to recover fraudulent benefits paid out during the pandemic. Worst, in the sense that repeated inaction by federal bureaucrats made the hearing necessary at all.
I noted nearly three years ago that federal auditors estimate that between $100 billion and $135 billion of the roughly $900 billion in Covid-related unemployment benefits constituted fraud. But even though enforcement efforts have recouped on taxpayers’ behalf a mere fraction of that amount, government officials appear unwilling to act when nearly $1 billion of potentially recoverable cash lies right underneath their noses.
