A new House bill aims to overhaul how the federal government combats fraud by creating a new inspector general focused on fraud at the Treasury Department and expanding the use of data analytics to prevent improper payments.
Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, introduced the bill last week in an effort to address what lawmakers say are hundreds of billions of dollars in annual federal fraud losses.
According to a 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office, the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud, based on data from fiscal years 2018 through 2022.
“For Uncle Sam to turn around and lose hundreds of billions of dollars to fraud every year is absurd,” Sessions said in an April 16 press release. “During COVID, we learned that it is far too easy to commit fraud in federal programs. We also learned that once the money goes out the door to a fraudster, the vast majority is gone for good.”
“I have introduced the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act to ensure the federal government places appropriate emphasis on fraud prevention, not just fraud recovery,” he said.
The bill would establish a permanent inspector general for fraud, accountability, and recovery (IGFAR) in the Treasury Department. The position would serve a government-wide role, working with agency inspectors general to identify and mitigate fraud in federal spending, particularly for awards exceeding $50,000.
The legislation also seeks to expand Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service into a hub for fraud prevention, building on tools and data analytics capabilities developed during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC).
According to the bill’s text, the legislation calls for the establishment or use of “an independent data analytics platform, which shall incorporate to the extent practicable and feasible the data analytic platform maintained by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.”
Congress created the PRAC as a part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in 2020 to help combat COVID-19 fraud. The PRAC was set to sunset last year, but through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Congress extended its sunset date to 2034.