President Trump’s Fraud Ledger Is a Good Start, but Now Congress Must Act

Washington has never had much trouble spending taxpayer money, but keeping track of where it goes has proved considerably harder.

Thankfully, the Trump administration has been extremely aggressive in tackling fraud wherever it occurs as the White House’s new Fraud Ledger shows.

The ledger currently reports an estimated $245.7 billion in fraud uncovered since January 2025. Further, the administration says it has successfully stopped $62.9 billion in annual fraud through administrative actions, with $59.1 billion recovered through indictments, settlements, and civil penalties.

While a grateful American taxpayer appreciates the efforts to curtail waste, fraud, and abuse, the next step is to ensure money isn’t stolen before these anti-embezzlement measures snap into place.

To that end, President Donald Trump signed an executive order last March creating the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. The order directs federal agencies to “coordinate and accelerate a comprehensive national strategy to stop fraud, waste, and abuse.”

By tightening eligibility verification, establishing prepayment controls, and improving information sharing, the task force has cut deep into the heart of American politics’ perennial problems.

The federal government supplies money to important programs while a web of other intermediaries administers them. Oversight becomes difficult to manage as the funds move down the chain.

Worse still, fraud causes taxpayers to pay twice, first for the initial deceit, then for the small army of government bureaucrats and investigations needed to recover the money.

Relatedly, the Office of Management and Budget proposed a major rewrite of government-wide rules governing federal financial assistance in May to expand oversight of grants and strengthen mechanisms for dealing with suspected fraud and misconduct.

Though the Trump administration’s efforts to slash fraud across the board are admirable, executive orders are temporary bandages for festering political wounds. They can easily be overturned by future Democrat administrations that would prefer to fund their pet projects rather than save the American taxpayer’s money.

Congress can help avert that reality.

One such bill, the Stop Child Care Scams Act, passed the House in June and was referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., introduced the Senate version on June 16.

The legislation, backed by Heritage Action, imposes new program-integrity requirements on the Child Care and Development Block Grant and requires corrective action plans from states with improper-payment rates above 5%.

That’s particularly relevant given states like Minnesota’s refusal to comply with anti-fraud efforts, the bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to withhold funds from states that repeatedly fail to comply with federal requirements.

Another piece of anti-fraud legislation backed by Heritage Action is the No Aid for Ghost Students Act, which also passed by the House in June. Like the child care measure, the No Aid for Ghost Students Act requires the Department of Education to run FAFSA applications through an identity-fraud detection system.

Educational institutions would then verify the identity of applicants flagged for possible fraud before federal student aid is disbursed. No more taxpayer money for spectral students!

Taken together, executive and legislative efforts to figure out who is receiving taxpayer money before the check clears can be enormously effective.

The White House’s Fraud Ledger documents the widescale fraud at play, while the anti-fraud task force and Office of Management and Budget’s reforms quickly tighten the federal government’s defenses. Legislation like the Stop Child Care Scams Act and No Aid for Ghost Students Act would put specific safeguards into federal law, far from the schemes of Democrat politicians.

Though fraud is as inevitable as death and taxes, the government should do everything in its power to limit its pernicious impact on the American people.

Washington has spent decades learning how to write checks. It’s far past time to make sure the money goes where it’s supposed to.

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