FULL MEETING: JD Vance touts $56B in blocked payments, urges wider federal fraud crackdown
Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday called on Congress to help codify a broader federal anti-fraud effort, arguing that stronger data-sharing rules, steeper penalties and more resources are needed to stop waste, fraud and abuse in government programs.
Speaking at a roundtable event with lawmakers focused on fraud prevention, Vance said the Trump administration’s fraud task force had identified $230 billion in fraud and stopped $56 billion in fraudulent payments since it was created.
He said the effort, which has involved agencies across the federal government, should now be backed by legislation to make the changes permanent.
This effort will fundamentally always have a limitation unless our colleagues in the House and the Senate are working with us," Vance said. "In order to make this really work, we need our colleagues in Congress to really codify some of this stuff, to make sure that it becomes law."
The vice president said fraud is a “dual victim crime,” arguing that it harms both taxpayers and people who depend on programs intended to provide food, health care and other assistance. He pointed to Medicaid and nutrition assistance programs as examples of systems he said have been vulnerable to abuse.
"The most obvious victim, of course, is the American taxpayer, who has their hard-earned tax dollars stolen from them to enrich people who are violating our laws and taking advantage of our country. But I think more profoundly, and more sadly, the second victim of fraud are the people who benefit from programs that the American people have set up in their generosity and in their kindness of spirit, and those programs don't function as well or don't even have the resources necessary to work because they've been stolen from by fraudsters," Vance said.
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Path to Full Story on 29 Eyewitness NewsPosted: Wednesday Aug-5-2026 2:44 PM
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