Kevin Kiley: “I am quite astonished. I had every expectation I would be coming to the floor for what would be a bill with overwhelming…”

“I am quite astonished. I had every expectation I would be coming to the floor for what would be a bill with overwhelming bipartisan support. After all, COVID-era unemployment fraud was the largest fraud of taxpayer dollars in U.S. history. In California alone, it amounted to some $32 billion. By the way, California made it really easy. People would submit claims with the name ``Mickey Mouse,'' or something along those lines, and it was given no scrutiny as the State ignored the basic fraud detection procedures that were recommended by the Federal Government. Because of the scale of this fraud, there is a very small percentage of the cases that have been prosecuted, and thousands remain unresolved, so there is the need to extend the statute of limitations. The question with this bill is: Are we going to allow those cases to go forward, or are they all going to be dismissed? {time} 1500 Are we going to hold the perpetrators accountable, or are we going to let them all go free? Are we going to try to recover these funds for taxpayers, or are we going to allow the international criminal syndicates to keep it? By the way, Mr. Speaker, what do you think they are going to do with the money? Give it to charity? No. They are going to use it for further criminal activity. This is a commonsense measure. I am sure 99.9 percent of Americans support it, and I sure hope 100 percent of our friends on the other side of the aisle don't oppose it when it comes for a vote.”