Require states to share certain data with federal law enforcement?
The Preventing Rip-offs and Obtaining Oversight of Funds Act would require states to share data with federal law enforcement to help detect and prosecute fraud. If requested by the U.S. Attorney General, states would have to turn over records tied to certain federal programs, including Medicaid, SNAP, unemployment benefits, COVID relief funds, and disaster aid. The data covered includes identity records, benefit payment logs, and provider billing statements. Shared data would be encrypted, limited to authorized personnel, and deleted after an investigation.
Sponsor: Rep. Jefferson Van Drew (Republican, New Jersey, District 2)
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Opponents say
• "While these bills' overall goal of preventing fraud in federal programs is critical for maintaining program integrity and protecting tax dollars, these bills adopt an approach that would dramatically consolidate personal information and sacrifice privacy without evidence that they will achieve their stated goals." Source: Center for Democracy and Technology
• "The gentleman [Rep. Ben Cline] said this is about getting the government the enforcement tools it needs to police fraud, but they have not offered a single example of one case of fraud where they couldn’t get the evidence that they needed in order to prosecute someone. They gave some examples of the government demanding unlimited information from a state agency about everybody who had ever been in the door, but that’s different. That’s why the courts are striking those kinds of attempts down. It has to be based on something, maybe not probable cause, but at least reasonable suspicion. They haven’t demonstrated one case where the government has failed to make a prosecution because they couldn't get the information they needed through the normal tools of subpoenas and other kinds of research… But they want to give the federal government the power to engage in these massive deep-sea fishing expeditions for everybody’s information." Source: Rep. Jamie Raskin (Democrat, Maryland, District 8)
Proponents say
• "We know that there is a lot of fraud in the SNAP program. We know that there are illegal aliens who benefit from the SNAP program; people who have no legal right to be in the country, we would like to stop that. But I think the American people would be shocked to learn because I was certainly shocked when I learned it a few months ago that when we send tax dollars to the states to administer the SNAP program, we have no visibility into who is ultimately getting those benefits." Source: Vice President of the United States of America JD Vance
• "When billions of dollars are stolen from programs like Medicaid, like SNAP, like unemployment insurance, it doesn’t just strain federal taxpayers, it strains state and federal budgets as well… This massive financial drain leads to higher deficits, increased pressure on tax revenues, stricter eligibility rules that harm everyday Americans who genuinely need assistance—the very people we are talking about here are hardworking Americans who are seeing their tax dollars go towards payments that are fraudulent. We want to be able to use their tax dollars for the purposes that they are meant for." Source: Rep. Ben Cline (Republican, Virginia, District 6)
- Congressman Van Drew Demands Accountability After New Jersey Confirms Thousands of Non-Citizens Were Registered to Vote (Press Release)
- As Feds Press for State Data, Officials May Bolster Privacy Protections (GovExec)
- At Least 27 States Turned Over Sensitive Data About Food Stamp Recipients to USDA (NPR)
- Rep. Jefferson Van Drew’s Largest Donors (OpenSecrets)
