Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I have sent a letter along with several of my colleagues in the California delegation to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Attorney General Pam Bondi asking them to investigate a simple question: Why is it so stunningly easy to commit fraud against the State of California? During the COVID era, we saw fraud unlike we had ever seen when $32 billion in unemployment benefits were purloined from fraudsters, international criminal syndicates, who were easily able to just defraud Gavin Newsom's Unemployment Department. Mr. Speaker, the latest example that we have learned is that over a third of community college applications in the State were fraudulent. These were not real people, not real students actually seeking a spot at one of our community colleges. What they were instead were scams, individuals who were trying and succeeding in committing financial aid fraud, siphoning more than $10 million in Federal funds and millions more in State aid, according to the California community chancellor's own office. We have asked the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education to look into this matter and see why California has not been able to stop this from happening. We know that, with respect to the EDD fraud in the COVID era, the Governor's office failed to take the basic commonsense steps that other States took that the Federal Government had advised. For example, cross-checking applications for unemployment against the prison rolls, something that almost every other State did, and California didn't do. I would not be surprised to learn that there were similar oversights here with respect to the community college fraud. We look forward to getting back the results of this investigation, and urge the State to take immediate action to make sure that millions more in taxpayer dollars aren't lost. Independent Contractor Rule”