Republicans declare war on 'organized theft' with government fraud crackdown

FIRST ON FOX: A cohort of Senate Republicans are launching an anti-fraud task force to mirror the efforts of the Trump administration in its multibillion-dollar fraud crusade.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is leading the group of nine Senate Republicans in their formation of the Anti-Fraud Task Force, a group that will examine fraud, waste and abuse across federal programs, identify vulnerabilities in those programs and ensure that the buck stops where the flow of funding begins: Congress.

"The fraud epidemic burdening our country is one of the most pressing issues facing Americans today," Schmitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "It’s organized theft on a national scale, and the Americans paying the price are the ones swinging the hammer and driving the trucking, working their tails off to make ends meet."

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"Our Task Force will go after the fraud rings and bad actors exploiting our systems and robbing Americans," he continued. "Following President Trump's lead, we’re declaring war on fraud."

Schmitt has recruited Sens. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Katie Britt, R-Ala., Ashley Moody, R-Fla., Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

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Johnson contended that depending on the database you accessed — like the Government Accountability Office or LexisNexis — the amount of federal government fraud fluctuated between $250 billion and $1 trillion per year.

"It’s nearly impossible to recover those funds through prosecutions, so we must focus on preventing the money from getting to the fraudsters in the first place," Johnson said.

Schmitt’s task force is meant to align with the Trump administration’s anti-fraud efforts led by Vice President JD Vance, whom President Donald Trump tapped to be his anti-fraud czar, that were launched earlier this year.

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Vance’s operation hit the ground running in April and identified nearly $6.3 billion in government contracts believed to be tied to potentially fraudulent businesses. Those findings showed nearly 400 businesses would be required to prove they had legitimate operations and physical addresses.

In May, the task force withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers nationwide.

Schmitt’s effort isn’t the only one in the Senate, either. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has been ramping up anti-fraud efforts since the beginning of the year in the wake of the Minnesota fraud scandal.

Cassidy launched an anti-fraud task force cracking down on abuses in Minnesota that has since expanded to other blue states, including New York, Michigan and Oregon.