This week, the U.S. House of Representatives took up twelve bills to fight rampant fraud in federal programs. Every dollar lost to waste, fraud, and error is a dollar wrongly taken from taxpayers. Wasteful spending adds to federal government borrowing, which makes Americans’ cost-of-living challenges even worse.
The high and rising federal debt burden crowds out the private sector investment that increases worker productivity, pay, and job conditions. Studies suggest that we are losing 0.7 to 0.8 percentage points of improvement in living standards per year – and compounding – due to federal debt drag.
Too much federal debt has forced the Federal Reserve to absorb large amounts of government bonds. Monetizing the debt was a major factor in this decade’s inflation, as Ilana Blumsack and I explained in Bidenflation Blame Game: How Big-Spending Politicians Scapegoat Business. The debt forces the Federal Reserve into a dilemma of trading off higher inflation and higher interest rates.
The only way to avoid that dire choice is for Congress to control spending and borrowing.
U.S. House takes on fraudsters
Twelve fraud-fighting bills passed the House this week:
- H.R. 6916, the Federal Program Integrity and Fraud Prevention Act of 2025, by Reps. Keith Self (R-TX), Emily Randall (D-WA).
- H.R. 428, the Bonuses for Cost-Cutters and Fraud Preventers Act, by Reps. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Ed Case (D-HI), Scott DesJarlais (R-TN).
- H.R. 8467, the Zeroing Out Monetary Benefits Improperly Expended (ZOMBIE) Act, by Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL).
- H.R. 8466, the Taxpayer Resources Used in Emergencies (TRUE) Accountability Act, by Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA).
- H.R. 8340, the Taxpayer Funds Oversight and Accountability Act, by Reps. Dave Min (D-CA), William Timmons (R-SC), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Pete Sessions (R-TX).
- H.R. 8107, the Government Audit and Accountability of Federally Funded State-Administered Programs Act, by Ro Khanna (D-CA), Tim Burchett (R-TN).
- H.R. 8463, the Pre-Payment Fraud Prevention and Treasury Data Access Act, by Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Jodey Arrington (R-TX), Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA).
- H.R. 8428, the Federal Fraud Prevention Workforce Training Act, by Reps. Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).
- H.R. 8312, the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act, by Reps. Pete Sessions (R-TX), William Timmons (R-SC).
- H.R. 8464, the Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act, by Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Jodey Arrington (R-TX), Ken Calvert (R-CA).
- H.Res. 1335, Condemning actors seeking to defraud the United States Government, and expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that governmentwide fraud and improper payment prevention reforms will meaningfully improve the financial prosperity of the United States, and that Federal program eligibility should be verified before payment, by Reps. Pat Fallon (R-TX), Pete Sessions (R-TX), John McGuire (R-VA), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
- H.R. 7892, No Aid for Ghost Students Act of 2026, by Reps. Burgess Owens (R-UT), Kevin Kiley (I-CA), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Jay Obernolte (R-CA).
Congress has more to clean up
If the Senate passes and the president signs this legislation, it will give federal agencies instructions and powers to investigate, prevent, deter, and respond to actual and suspected fraud. These powers and instructions are sensible ways to protect taxpayers and begin restoring integrity to federal programs.
Congress has much more to do, however, especially to empower itself to weed out waste, fraud, abuse, and other low-value activities.
As I shared with Rep. Jodey Arrington, Chair of the House Budget Committee, in March, Congress must make waste, fraud, and abuse compete with everything else.
Congress doing a real budget every year is essential. All committees must review their programs within constraints and contribute to an annual budget act covering all spending and revenue. Only a complete budget can fully unleash Congress to maximize value for the American people. Holistic review can generate far more creativity and problem solving – both within the budget and through budget-informed reauthorizations – than is possible through just the quarter of spending in annual appropriations bills.
Preventing shutdowns will replace budget bloat with bottom-up legislating to earn members’ votes. The delusion of shutdown leverage distracts Congress from the art of the possible while disproportionately keeping members’ attention on a relatively narrow slice of the budget.
Reasonable, enforceable budget targets would minimize fighting over the goals. This would let members focus on fighting over how to reach them. It would also support tradeoff conversations within and across program areas. Not everything is equally valuable, and budget targets help Congress redeploy resources productively.
The House is taking important steps toward cleaning up federal programs. Congress must continue to build on those efforts to make sure that the federal government is serving the public as well as possible.
Kurt Couchman is a Senior Fiscal Policy Fellow at Americans for Prosperity.
