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 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A massive asteroid nearly the size of a New York skyscraper will make a close pass by Earth in the early hours of Thursday, September 18, according to NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s state visit to Britain was overshadowed by an in-flight scare and angry protests as he met King Charles III at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which have not ruled out seeking atomic weapons if under threat, have signed a defense pact pledging that any attack on either nation would be viewed as an attack on both.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered interest rates for the first time in nine months, citing signs of a cooling labor market and persistent uncertainty in the U.S. economy.
Several nations have threatened to boycott the world’s largest televised song competition if Israel participates.
Suspected Islamist gunmen on motorbikes have killed at least 22 people in Niger, including about 15 at a baptism ceremony and seven more nearby, officials and witnesses said. In neighboring Nigeria, a Christian farmer in the Abuja area separately told Worthy News he miraculously escaped armed men raiding his land.
At least nine people have died in Pakistan’s Punjab province when a rescue boat capsized during flood relief efforts, authorities confirmed over the weekend amid massive death and destruction that also impacted the Islamic nation’s tiny Christian minority.