Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), the chairman of the Work and Welfare Subcommittee. Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Smith for his leadership on this very important topic. I rise in strong support of H.R. 1156, the Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act. This bill extends the statute of limitations for CARES Act unemployment fraud from 5 to 10 years to provide law enforcement agencies with more time to go after the fraudsters and international criminal organizations. Nearly 5 years after the CARES Act was signed into law, we are facing the expiration of the statute of limitations for holding criminals accountable. Congress must act quickly. We cannot retroactively change criminal liability for Federal crimes. As chairman of the Work and Welfare Subcommittee, we have done considerable oversight to investigate the size and scope of unemployment fraud throughout the pandemic. GAO estimates between $100 billion and $135 billion, with a b, was lost to fraud, yet only $5 billion has been recovered. This February, our subcommittee held a hearing with fraud experts from across the country. One of our witnesses said that as much as 70 percent of the fraudulent unemployment benefits went to Russian mobsters, Chinese hackers, and Nigerian scammers. A recent DOJ case involved a Pennsylvania man obtaining $59 million in public benefits and laundering the proceeds to China.…”