TRUE Accountability Act

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me.

Mr. Speaker, over the past few months, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has taken the lead on investigating a staggering amount of fraud. The common theme we have seen in this fraud has been bad actors taking advantage of emergency funds from the government. Agencies disburse money from these taxpayer-funded accounts to help those in need when an emergency, such as the COVID pandemic, cause major disruptions in the day-to-day lives of Americans.

Emergency relief funds are meant to help families stay afloat in a crisis. Instead, a lack of planning by and failures of oversight of Federal agencies have turned these emergency funds into a jackpot for fraudsters.

For example, a central point of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's oversight hearing dealt with his ties to the criminals in the Feeding Our Future scheme. That scheme involved more than $250 million in taxpayer money being stolen by the Feeding Our Future organization, which defrauded USDA's COVID programs.

What became glaringly evident in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic was that government agencies were not properly equipped to deal with emergency relief funds. Even those in government, such as Minnesota's Attorney General Ellison, have failed to investigate and even potentially aided fraudsters abusing these funds.

It was one of the largest COVID-era fraud schemes in the country, and it happened right under the nose of Minnesota's top law enforcement officer.

That is why we need to make sure emergency relief funds are protected from fraud. In total, the Government Accountability Office estimates that a staggering 19 different pandemic relief programs were defrauded from 2020 to 2024 to the tune of $300 billion. What is even more disturbing is that was just the fraud in COVID-related programs.

In addition to COVID-related fraud, the Government Accountability Office also estimates that the government may lose as much as $521 billion. That is not waste. That is not error. That is a heist of historic proportions.

These numbers are practically unfathomable. Yet, here they are staring at us as a reality. We, quite literally, cannot afford as a country to be losing that amount of money per year to fraudsters. Our national dealt is nearing $39 trillion.

That is why I joined my Democratic colleague (Mr. Subramanyam), and we introduced the TRUE Accountability Act together. That passed out of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform unanimously.

The TRUE Accountability Act is simple. It tells Federal agencies to plan ahead, protect taxpayer dollars, and stop treating fraud as an afterthought or a cost just built into the system as a feature, because it is time to bring some accountability to our government so that we stop losing untold amounts of hard-earned taxpayer money.

This act forces government agencies to be better prepared for an emergency, requires them to make internal plans that incorporate data- driven frameworks such as the GAO's A Framework for Managing Improper Payments in Emergency Assistance Programs, and A Framework for Managing Fraud Risk in 20 Federal Programs.

These plans will include policies and procedures to assess risks of improper payments, fraud, and related mitigation strategies, as well as to identify a senior official responsible and accountable for implementing the plan.

These internal plans will go a long way in combating any potential fraud that might occur when emergency relief funds are disbursed.

We must not be caught off guard the next time an emergency hits. In an emergency, people's lives are already upended. They don't need to also be worrying about fraudsters looting the Federal Treasury. We need to be ready to act in an efficient manner that protects taxpayer dollars.

This is a commonsense, bipartisan effort that both sides of the aisle can easily agree on, and it must be passed to safeguard the hard-earned money of American taxpayers.

Fraudsters learned from the COVID-era. With this bill, next time we will be ready for them, not the other way around.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 8466) to require certain agencies to develop plans for internal control in the event of an emergency or crisis, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 8466, the Taxpayer Resources Used in Emergencies Accountability Act, or the TRUE Accountability Act.

This bill takes action to ensure agencies be prepared to protect taxpayer dollars during future national emergencies when Federal agency programs and spending are often rapidly expanded by supplemental emergency spending packages advanced by Congress.

Between March 2020 and March 2021, Congress enacted a series of six laws providing over $4.6 billion in Federal funds to mitigate the economic and public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unprecedented expansion of government programs and lack of commensurate and adequate fraud prevention and financial management capabilities created a perfect scenario for existing program and payment integrity weaknesses to be exploited.

In short, agencies rushed to get money out the door as fast as possible and, in some cases, loosened the guardrails to make funding access easier and more efficient.

While the true extent of pandemic relief fraud may never be known, the Comptroller General of the United States observes that hundreds of billions of dollars in potentially fraudulent payments were dispersed.

The TRUE Accountability Act requires that agencies are prepared for future emergency supplemental spending legislation.

Specifically, the bill requires the Office of Management and Budget to

issue guidance and for agencies to develop plans for internal controls for use in future emergencies. It is imperative that Federal agencies and programs have strong financial controls in place from the start, rather than developing them after the fact, as funding is already flowing out the door during a national emergency. This bill will help mitigate fraud in future national emergencies.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my Oversight Committee colleagues Congressmen Andy Biggs and Suhas Subramanyam for championing this necessary and forward-looking legislation. I encourage my colleagues to support this important bipartisan bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 10 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 8466, the TRUE Accountability Act, which will mitigate future fraud like we have recently experienced in the pandemic-era emergency spending.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 8466, the Taxpayer Resources Used in Emergencies Accountability Act. I am proud to be co- lead of this legislation with my colleague, Representative Biggs, and I thank him for his work on this issue.

This bill would require Federal agencies to develop internal control plans for future national emergencies. In times of disasters, pandemics, and other crises, it is crucial that the emergency Federal spending reaches the people who need it the most.

Emergency assistance can save small businesses from closing, protect public health, provide people displaced by disasters with housing, and much more.

But, unfortunately, bad actors can take advantage of these situations to commit fraud and steal funds. Every cent that is stolen doesn't reach the Americans who need it. Having an internal control plan will help Federal agencies develop strategies to mitigate those risks.

This is a commonsense, bipartisan solution that will ensure that agencies like FEMA and the Small Business Administration are better prepared for the future. That way we can ensure that emergency funds reach the people who need them quickly.

An effective response to a national emergency starts with advanced planning, and that is what this bill does. I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I thank the sponsor again for co-leading this bill with me.

I will say that I lived in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit the city, and there was a lot of fraud related to the money disbursed there afterwards. This has been a long-standing problem for many decades across Democratic and Republican administrations. I am glad that we are taking steps in a bipartisan way to address this issue to make sure there is less fraud.

These internal control plans, while they don't seem exciting, are very effective. I have done them at private companies, and I think these Federal agencies will benefit from them.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present for votes on the legislation being considered under suspension of the rules on June 8, 2026, due to a delayed flight.

Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 208, the TRUE Accountability Act (H.R. 8466), and YEA on Roll Call No. 209, the Federal Fraud Prevention Workforce Training Act (H.R. 8428).

Mr. Speaker, I was absent from the floor and missed roll call votes numbered 208 and 209. Had I been present, I would have voted: YEA on Roll Call No. 208, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass H.R. 8466; and YEA on Roll Call No. 209, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass H.R. 8428.

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