Thune bill seeks to uncover fraud in federal pandemic unemployment insurance programs

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) on Sept. 14 proposed a bill that would establish the COVID–19 Unemployment Insurance Fraud Task Force to investigate alleged fraud in the temporary unemployment insurance programs established by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

The Recovering Fraudulent Claims Act, S. 2742, which Sen. Thune sponsored with original cosponsor U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), would require the task force to report to Congress on its findings and provide insight into the amount of fraudulent unemployment insurance payments that have been recovered and the number of individuals who have been prosecuted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a bill summary provided by Sen. Thune’s office.  

“Americans deserve to know where their hard-earned tax dollars are going, plain and simple,” Sen. Thune said. “Unfortunately, substantial amounts of fraudulent payments have been made through the COVID-19 unemployment insurance programs. This commonsense legislation would improve current federal efforts to recover these fraudulent payments and hold those at fault responsible.”

According to a June report released by the Foundation for Government Accountability, the total amount of fraud through these unemployment programs could surpass $300 billion.

And while the U.S. Department of Justice has established the National Unemployment Insurance Fraud Task Force to investigate allegations of fraud and prosecute those responsible, it remains unclear how active the task force has been, according to Sen. Thune’s office.

If enacted, the bill would make such federal agency efforts public and more responsive to Congress, the bill summary says.