By Thérèse Boudreaux | The Center Square
(Worthy News) – Legislation that would give the U.S. Department of Justice more time to track down and punish pandemic-era unemployment insurance (UI) fraud is on its way to the U.S. House floor.
The Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., provides a five-year extension on the statute of limitations for criminally prosecuting those who committed CARES Act related UI fraud.
According to the DOJ, there are still 157,000 open UI fraud complaints and 1,648 open investigations. If no congressional action is taken, the current statute will expire on March 27, leaving thousands of Americans unreimbursed for stolen benefits and potentially hundreds of fraudsters would be let off the hook.
“Given the volume of existing cases currently under investigation, there is no reason that Congress should not act to ensure law enforcement stays on this beat and goes after these criminals,” Smith told lawmakers. “If we don’t extend the statute of limitations, every one of these investigations will end and those that perpetrated the greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history will not be brought to justice.”
While the Government Accountability Office estimates that upwards of $100 billion in unemployment benefits were lost to fraud during the pandemic, only $5 billion have been recovered.
“Fraudsters ran rampant during COVID, taking advantage of states like California that had weak fraud protections in their unemployment insurance systems,” U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-Ind., a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said. “We can’t let them off the hook by letting the statute of limitations expire.”
Currently, more than 2,000 individuals have been charged with, and over 1,400 convicted of, unemployment insurance fraud since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The bill has 25 cosponsors, all Republican, and is part of the GOP’s efforts to address waste, fraud, and abuse connected to the federal government.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A young Christian brick-kiln worker in Pakistan’s Punjab province says he was beaten, chained, and threatened after protesting low wages and working conditions, while his wife and children were also assaulted in a case raising fresh concerns about bonded labor among impoverished Christians.
New York City police say they have shot and killed a female suspect who allegedly stabbed two people in Times Square on Monday, including one woman who died of her injuries.
Iranian authorities have killed or imprisoned dozens of Christians amid a widening crackdown on the country’s underground church, according to Iran Alive Ministries, a Texas-based Christian ministry with a network inside Iran.
An emerging alliance between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Somalia’s al-Shabaab terrorists is raising alarms among U.S. and regional officials, according to an exclusive report by The Wall Street Journal.
A new report suggests a surprising shift may be underway in Canada, where younger adults are showing stronger signs of religious interest than many expected after decades of national secular decline.
The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to intensify voter-fraud investigations in nine states ahead of the midterm elections, according to a Newsmax report citing federal guidance.
The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $800 million foreign military sale to Iraq, a package aimed at strengthening Baghdad’s ability to move troops, conduct reconnaissance, and strike hostile targets amid continuing instability across the region.