Mike Thompson: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the economies of every…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the economies of every country around the world, resulting in great economic shutdown. However, our country, the United States, came out of the pandemic ahead of other nations because we expanded programs such as unemployment insurance. Sadly, this bill seeks to target Americans who received overpayment from the government at no fault of their own instead of going after those who committed fraud. During the bill's markup and later in the Rules Committee, I offered an amendment that would amend the criminal code to extend the statute of limitations to 10 years, as recommended by the Department of Labor Inspector General and legal experts so we could get the crooks. However, the Republicans decided to go after public servants and retirees instead of the criminals. One of the other members said that criminals and cheats need to be brought to justice. They do. Extend the statute of limitations and we can do it. We can catch the bad guys. We can catch the crooks. We can get the taxpayer money back.”