Bill of the Month — April 2024: Government Spending Oversight Act

S.4036/H.R.8009, the Government Spending Oversight Act of 2024

With over $34 trillion in outstanding national debt, the federal government has a responsibility to ensure its programs do not fall victim to waste, fraud, and abuse. Inspectors General exist for this purpose. The Government Spending Oversight Act of 2024 would enact a successor to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee and task it with identifying fraud within all federal programs. It is for these reasons, among others, that TPA is pleased to make the Government Spending Oversight Act of 2024, introduced by Sens. Gary Peters and Mitt Romney, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, its Bill of the Month for April 2024. 

Background:

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. federal government spent over $5 trillion on a variety of programs including direct payments, grant programs, unemployment insurance, and business assistance. However, the lax standards and generally weak oversight at the time these programs were enacted has since resulted in a massive amount of fraud. In fact, 1,399 individuals or businesses were found guilty or liable in pandemic-related fraud cases through June 2023. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), between 11 and 15 percent of all pandemic unemployment benefits were fraudulent, totaling up to $135 billion.

A large reason this waste has been uncovered and documented is the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-136). This effort was largely driven by Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and then-House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). The PRAC has identified nearly $2 billion in fraud loss. However, more must be done to identify and prevent fraud within federal programs beyond just COVID spending.

H.R.8009, the Government Spending Oversight Act of 2024

The analytics-driven concept of the PRAC has proven itself extremely useful and could be scaled up to review all government spending for waste, fraud, and abuse. The Government Spending Oversight Act of 2024 would create a successor committee to the PRAC, known as the Government Spending Oversight Committee (GSOC). It would empower this committee to work with Investigators General (IGs) in providing ample oversight at federal agencies.

With over $34 trillion in outstanding national debt, the federal government has a responsibility that its programs do not fall victim to waste, especially when IGs exist to make this preventable. It is for these reasons, among others, that TPA is pleased to make the Government Spending Oversight Act of 2024, introduced by Sens. Gary Peters and Mitt Romney, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, its Bill of the Month for April 2024.