Legislative Blog
J.B. Williams, J.D.
Transparency in COVID-19 Expenditures Act
A Blog about Transparency COVID19 Spending
A Bit of Background
The following backgrounds help summarize the author's views on both the general topic: Federal and more specifically Transparency COVID19 Spending as it relates to that topic.
Brief Summary of Federal
This should be a fairly limited bills area for management the overall structures like highways, military, federal buildings, federal laws, and the like. However it has become the micro manager of all micro managers. They get involved in areas that no federal government should be involved in, and shift more power upward. This has led to each party trying to run over the other party in the eyes of the voters, all the while doing everything possible to maintain their power. They do this by holding onto all of the money, and claiming they know best how it should be spent. But they run debts so badly that no one should be looking to them as an example of anything other than the way to overspend and go further into debt.
Summary of Transparency COVID19 Spending
Requiring audits concerning funds spent on COVID-19 relief.
Blog Summary
This is definitely an area that requires significant auditing. They should have kept many of the fraud prevention measures in place before giving out Billions.
Transparency in COVID-19 Expenditures Act
Published: 2024-01-06
Requires the Comptroller General to conduct an audit on the use of the following funding:
- Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020
- The Families First Coronavirus Response Act
- The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
- The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act
- Divisions M and N of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
- The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
I think it should be transparent, and I thought the Federal government was being transparent (or so they seem to claim). And honestly the very fact that there needs to be an Act to get this audit seems insane. I'm not saying they are not already suppose to do it, because I just don't know what the standard guidance is. However, all spending should be reviewed, especially funding that is spent during a 'declared emergency'. I've seen estimates of $420 BILLION or more in fraud.
Nearly $2 TRILLION on the American Rescue plan Act. Potentially more than $280 BILLION was stolen in COVID-19 relief funding, another $124 BILLION was misspent. That is 10% of the $4.2 TRILLION that was disbursed under the American Rescue Plan Act. The Treasury Department did not complete basic background checks before approving loans. The Small Business Administration has a backlog of more than 80,000 actionable leads regarding fraud, or an estimated 100 years of work. (I think they are severly under placing the necessity for figuring this out.) Fraud in the pandemic unemployment assistance program stands at $76 BILLION. And another $115 BILLION that was paid to people that should not have received the benefits.
Fraud was committed using Social Security numbers of dead people and federal prisoners. And it was collected by some in multiple states. The Federal government quickly spent trillions in relief with too little oversight and instituted far too few restrictions. So far more than 2,230 defendants have been charged with pandemic-related fraud. Michael Horowitz, US Justice Department inspector general, told Congress the fraud is 'clearly in the tnes of billions of dollars' and may exceed $100 BILLION. The IRS disburse some $837 BILLION, and had what it claimed was a less than 1% failure rate. Still that equates to nearly $8 BILLION going to ineligible individuals. Which they view as a tiny portion of the budget. But that tiny portion, if found in every program, is HUGE. Of the nearly $2 TRILLION in American Rescue plan, if only a 1% failure, that equates to $20 BILLION. For SBA, checks were ignored and borrowers were permitted to self-certify. Between March 2020 and July 2020, the SBA gave out loans totaling $169 BILLION.And the SBA was barred from even reviewing tax returns to weed out undeserving borrowers. They did not even use the 'DO NOT PAY' Treasure department database, which keeps money from going to debarred contractors, fugitives, felons and people convicted of tax fraud. There was a claim they needed to get the money out quickly. A check in the database would have created, at most, a 2 day delay; and prevented multitudes of fraud. The SBA inspector general's office estimates fraud on the $169 BILLION loan program to be at $86 BILLION. So that is more than 50% of the loans. And Paycheck Protection fraud is estimated at $20 BILLION. Although an independent review is anticipating that both of those numbers are actually much higher, but they are still reviewing. In fact a 2022 study from the University of Texas at Austin found almost 5 times the number of suspicious Paycheck Protection loans as the $20 BILLION reported so far.
The Biden Administration is looking to spend $1.6 Billion for enforcement efforts to go after pandemic fraud. The issue is the pure volume, and the lack of dedicated units that can focus on finding the fraud. This is something that should concern ever individual in the US. All of that money is, more likely than not, funds above and beyond what the Federal government collected in taxes. That means it is all 'borrowed' money. That involves interest, future payments and adds to the Federal debt. We've already outspent the current working people's taxes, and have begun spending on their children/grandchildren that are have not even been born. It really won't take much to have outspent their taxes and be stealing from yet another generation.
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