House to hold first hearing on COVID-related fraud

WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The House Committee on Oversight and Reform investigating pandemic-related fraud will hold its first hearing Wednesday.

A new report from a government watchdog group found almost $5.5 billion in federal COVID aid might have gone to ineligible businesses.

Court documents and public records showed luxury items were the fruits of fraud, bought and paid for with PPP loan money — the pandemic-era loan program meant to keep businesses afloat.

“We want to know, what’s the extent of the waste, fraud and abuse. What has this administration done to try to claw back any wasteful spending and is there a way we can claw back,” Rep. Jim Comer (R-Ky.) said.

Comer, the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, shared his prepared opening remarks for the committee hearing, saying, “We owe it to the American people to get to the bottom of the greatest theft of American taxpayer dollars in history.”

The recent report suggested the government misspent billions during the pandemic for fraudulent claims on people trying and succeeding in scamming the system — including $5.4 billion to small businesses with ineligible Social Security numbers.

Comer said they should “at least hold people accountable for misuse of funds.”

The committee will reveal that it’s not just PPP or unemployment fraud, but abuse of the pandemic has also led to the highest levels of identity theft in the nation’s history, a source within the House Oversight Committee confirmed to NewsNation.

“New reports show that not only were billions of American taxpayer dollars squandered but unfortunately went hand in hand with identity theft of thousands of Americans’ personal identification information. We owe it to the American people to provide answers,” Comer said.

Data obtained from the Federal Trade Commission showed before the pandemic, in 2019, 650,000 cases of identity theft were reported in the U.S. Fraud related to government benefits only made up a tiny fraction, about 23,000 cases.

However, in 2020 and 2021, identity theft ballooned to nearly 1.4 million cases yearly, with more than 800,000 cases directly attributed to fraudulent pandemic-era government benefits.

“Buying luxury vehicles and watches and vacation homes when parents need that money,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.

The Department of Justice has had an eye on pandemic abuse since the start of the PPP program, but Republicans on the House Oversight Committee said there had been a complete failure of accountability.

So whether it be a new million-dollar home in Mississippi or Rolexes bought in Houston, pandemic abuse has been an increasing headache for government watchdogs, and Congress is now hoping to get a full account to turn the tide.