This Democrat Is Singlehandedly Blocking The Prosecution Of COVID Fraudsters

Senator Ed Markey appears to be blocking a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting fraud in COVID-era government programs, seemingly siding with fraudsters and against the United States government.

The House of Representatives passed the “SBA Fraud Enforcement Extension Act” in July by voice vote, signaling overwhelming bipartisan support. The two-page bill simply gives more time for prosecutors to charge people who swindled two COVID bailouts, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant.

The programs were so fraud-ridden, and the dollar amounts so great, that investigators and prosecutors have a large backlog. Congress already added another five years to the prosecution window for the biggest COVID programs, the Paycheck Protection Program and unemployment bailouts.

But Markey, the top Democrat on the Senate panel overseeing the Small Business Administration, which took the lead on the pandemic recovery, appears to be using his position to block passage in the upper chamber. The Senate Small Business Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), approved the bill in July. But it has not been brought to the floor for passage.

“Senate Democrats are blocking my commonsense bill to extend the statute of limitations for COVID crimes, meaning criminals like those recently exposed in Minnesota will get away with it simply because the clock will run out,” Ernst told The Daily Wire. “It should be a no-brainer to side with taxpayers instead of fraudsters.”

The apparent blockage raises the question of whether Democrats have become the party of fraud, siding with the likes of the notorious Somali fraudsters who cost the government billions but vote for Democrats as a bloc.

The Biden administration doled out COVID billions using a “pay and chase” philosophy, meaning they erred on the side of getting money out the door, with the justification that they would claw back wrongly paid payments later. But the schemes were so numerous that they are still being uncovered, so not extending the statute of limitations amounts to simply paying scammers and not chasing at all.

John Hart, a former Senate aide who now leads the spending watchdog group Open The Books, said under Senate procedure that if a bill passes a committee and has the support of the top Republican and Democrat on that committee, it is fast-tracked for passage by the full chamber. “If the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Markey, would give the go-ahead, it could be passed by unanimous consent. That process helps uncontroversial bills succeed without extensive Senate procedures,” he told The Daily Wire.

The restaurant program cost $29 billion, and the inspector general found that recipients representing 12% of that did not even file the required paperwork. The shuttered venue program, which bailed out concert halls, cost $15 billion, more than half a billion dollars of which was identified by SBA as potentially improper. Both programs ran out of money, meaning fraudsters likely stole slots from more deserving businesses.

A spokesman for Markey — who has represented Massachusetts in Congress since 1976 — did not return a request for comment on what, if any, objection he has to the bill.

Ed Markey, at right (Photo by Mel Musto/Getty Images)

Hart said it’s hard to see a legitimate gripe.

“This issue ought to be unanimous. It could be on President Trump’s desk today. What, exactly, is controversial about prosecuting cases of fraud? Every dollar spent this way is unavailable for Americans who truly need it,” he said.

Reducing fraud in all government programs used to be an area of bipartisan agreement, with members of the minority party joining the majority in wonky policy discussions. After all, stopping fraud means liberals would have more money for other programs, or Republicans could use the savings to lower taxes.

If the Democrats have moved from the party of big government to the pro-fraud party, one contributing factor could be identity politics. The Biden administration drew the ire of the SBA inspector general by deciding not to even attempt to collect PPP loan repayment from businesses that were not eligible to have their loans forgiven, citing “equity” as justification.

In the state of Georgia alone, two state legislators, both of them black Democrats, have been accused of stealing from COVID bailout funds. In Virginia, a former state legislator, an Arab Democrat, was convicted of taking fake PPP loans.

The case of an African-born USAID employee who stole PPP loans raises the question of whether the Biden administration even attempted to stop fraud. He got money on the basis that his purported company did not make as much money in 2020 as it did in 2019 due to the pandemic. But state records and federal tax returns would have shown that the company didn’t even exist.

Markey, as the top Democrat on the committee overseeing perhaps the most-defrauded government spending spree in history, is the poster child for the notion that Democrats may now simply be apathetic, or even in denial, about fraud — even as fraud in places like Minnesota reaches such heights that it could make Great Society-style programs impossible.

Last month, Hart, along with this reporter, testified before the Senate Small Business Committee about reducing fraud. Most Democrats on the committee didn’t bother to attend, and those who did — led by Markey — made no attempt to find ways to reduce fraud, instead suggesting that the programs at issue were not enough billions to care about, or using their time on anti-Trump tirades about topics outside of the committee’s jurisdiction.

Ernst was surprised, saying, “Individuals who used Barbie dolls as their photo identification were approved for SBA loans. This is totally unacceptable. … [Markey] said the largest amount of waste, fraud, and abuse is not in the Small Business Administration programs. … This is, however, the Small Business Committee. … Are my Democrat colleagues saying we should be ignoring billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse?”