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Part 2 follow up to the previous story.

Vance Puts Numbers on the Board: $22 Billion in Fraudulent Loans, $1.3 Billion in Medicaid Clawbacks

Vice President Vance opened today’s anti-fraud roundtable by reading off the task force’s scorecard — and the numbers are significant.

Speaking at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with 15 Republican attorneys general and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Vance outlined what the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud has accomplished in its first two months:

More than $22 billion in fraudulent small business loans have been referred back to the Treasury Department for collection — the bulk of these tied to pandemic-era SBA fraud that Acting Labor Secretary Sonderling and SBA chief Kelly Loeffler have been documenting since January. More than $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements have been deferred from states the administration has identified as having inadequate fraud controls, with California the largest single target. The six-month enrollment freeze on new hospice and home health providers — announced earlier this month by CMS Administrator Oz — remains in place. $6.3 billion in suspected fraudulent government contracts, mostly awarded during the Biden administration, have been identified and flagged. $135 billion in COVID-era fraud has been partially recovered. $60 million in student aid fraud has been blocked. Substack

The numbers land the same day 24 Democratic attorneys general — including Minnesota’s Keith Ellison — declined to attend, citing inadequate notice. Ellison held a competing press conference this afternoon. The optics are difficult for Democrats: the task force is posting documented wins, the fraud they’re targeting is real and well-sourced, and the party that controls the states with the worst fraud records is the one that didn’t show up.

Whether the $22 billion in referred SBA loans will actually be collected — and how much of the $135 billion in COVID fraud is truly recoverable — are legitimate open questions. Referral to Treasury for collection is not the same as money in hand. But as a political document, today’s scorecard is hard to argue with.

Sources: NewsNation — Roundtable | C-SPAN — Full Remarks | Washington Examiner