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
Taiwan’s parliament approved a nearly $7.6 billion plan Thursday to expand the island’s military drone and other unmanned systems as it prepares for a potential Chinese attack.
Ratko Mladic, the bullish Bosnian Serb general who became feared as the “Butcher of the Balkans” after his forces besieged the Bosnian capital in the 1990s and carried out Europe’s worst massacre since World War II, has died. He was 84.
The U.S. Army is moving ahead with plans to build nuclear microreactors at five military installations, part of a $2.2 billion energy-security push aimed at keeping critical bases powered even if outside electric grids are disrupted.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” adding a symbolic but sharp new twist to a growing trade war between the United States and Canada.
Two people were killed Thursday in an apparent relationship-related attack at a school near the German capital Berlin, with authorities detaining a 19-year-old German man as the prime suspect, police and officials said.
Violence erupted around Indonesia’s parliament in the capital, Jakarta, on Thursday night as police fired tear gas and deployed water cannon against protesters, while authorities detained scores of people accused of seeking to exploit nationwide demonstrations to create unrest.Violence erupted around Indonesia’s parliament in the capital, Jakarta, on Thursday night as police fired tear gas and deployed water cannon against protesters, while authorities detained scores of people accused of seeking to exploit nationwide demonstrations to create unrest.
Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the U.N. Security Council that Hamas has not yet carried out its pledge to disarm, warning that continued weapons activity, tunnel operations, and obstruction inside Gaza are threatening to derail the U.S.-backed peace framework.