River Region Times

Washington, D.C. — On May 12, Rep. Barry Moore (AL-02) voted in support of H.R. 1163, the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act. This legislation, sponsored by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, would potentially recover billions in stolen unemployment benefits by providing states with incentives to investigate and recover lost funds.

"Pandemic unemployment fraud might be the largest theft of tax dollars in history. Almost half of the $878 billion in unemployment benefits provided by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been lost to fraud,” said Moore. "House Republicans are working to recover every dollar stolen from American families, and this legislation will kickstart the process."

Background from the House Committee on Ways and Means:

H.R.1163 – Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act will protect taxpayers by:

• Allowing states to keep 25 percent of recovered fraudulent overpayments of federal funds.
• Allowing states to use recovered funds to improve program integrity and fraud prevention.
• Allowing states to keep 5 percent of state UI overpayments, conditioned on meeting data matching integrity conditions and dedicating those funds to preventing future fraud.
• Extending the statute of limitations for criminal charges or civil actions from 5 to 10 years.

To learn more about this legislation, click here.

Original source can be found here.