Vice President JD Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson on Friday convened top administration officials to formally launch an anti-fraud task force, outlining a sweeping effort to crack down on swindles in federal benefit programs and citing alleged abuses in states such as Minnesota and California.
"We have half the Cabinet here," Vance said at the outset, underscoring the scale of the initiative. He described fraud as a persistent problem "going back for probably 30 or 40 years," but argued it had grown significantly in recent years.
"We think fraud has been a problem for a long time. It became a massive, massive problem," he said.
Vance said the administration will "turn back on those anti-fraud protections" and pursue a "whole-of-government approach," emphasizing coordination across agencies.
"What we're going to actually do is force the bureaucracy to take this seriously and work together to make sure that we stop allowing fraudsters to steal the American people's money," he said.
He stressed that the issue extends beyond financial losses.
"This is not just theft of the American people's money. This is also theft of critical services that the American people rely on," Vance said.
As an example, Vance pointed to alleged fraud in a Medicaid-funded autism services program in Minnesota.
"You have a program set up to help autistic children and their families," he said, but claimed "fraudsters at an industrial scale [are] taking advantage of that program to the tune of millions and millions of dollars."
He added that the result is twofold: "It's not going there. It's going to help fraudsters, and you have families who need these services who are unable to get them.
"This story is replayed again and again and again across many states and across many different programs. It has to stop. The president has ordered us to stop it."
Ferguson, who is leading the task force, called fraud in public programs a fundamental threat to public trust.
"America is the most generous nation in the history of the world," he said, noting that taxpayers contribute "trillions of their tax dollars" to social programs based on "the belief that their governments will do the right things with their dollars.
"Fraud shreds the social trust on which these programs and our entire nation depend. ... This fraud crisis is thus existential. If we fail to address it, the fabric of our nation will swiftly unravel."
He argued that fraud harms not only taxpayers, but also intended beneficiaries.
"Every dollar diverted to a fake hospice or a fake autism center deprives an American citizen who needs these essential services," he said.
"Fraud therefore wounds the neediest among us."
Ferguson said the task force will "develop a comprehensive national strategy to combat the corruption of our federal benefits programs" and assist the Justice Department in prosecutions.
"Together, we can remove the scourge of fraud and restore public confidence in their efficacy and integrity," he said.
The task force, created by executive order, brings together multiple agencies and Cabinet officials, signaling what the administration described as a high-priority initiative.
A closed-door meeting followed the press conference to discuss next steps.
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