Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Accountability Committee are renewing their requests for documents detailing the extent of unemployment insurance fraud in the state of California.
California paid out as much as $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims during the COVID-19 pandemic, out of as much as $163 billion fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) dollars distributed nationwide. Republicans have staunchly criticized Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su for failing to prevent the fraudulent claims, since she was state Labor Secretary until 2021. Alleged fraudsters reportedly spent PPP funds on gambling, sports cars, and other luxury goods.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have repeatedly requested that Employment Development Department Director Nancy Farias provide documentation detailing warnings the state received about fraudulent claims and what it did to investigate. However, chairman James Comer of Kentucky and Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services chairwoman Lisa McClain of Michigan “do not consider the EDD’s response as complete,” due to Farias only submitting “hyperlinks to various press releases and reports.”
“We are providing you with another opportunity to provide the Committee with responsive documents and communications to assist the Committee’s investigation,” Comer and McClain wrote Wednesday in a letter to Farias, obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller.
Read the letter here:
CA UI Fraud Letter to CA EDD Follow Up by Michael Ginsberg on Scribd
Labor Department Inspector General Larry Turner testified to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in March 2022 that as much as $163 billion in unemployment insurance money could have been distributed improperly, with a “significant portion” of the money fraudulently paid out. He added that more than 18% of unemployment insurance money paid out during the pandemic was obtained fraudulently. Congress earmarked more than $3.5 trillion during the pandemic for individuals and small businesses.
“The Oversight Committee’s mission is to have the backs of American taxpayers and prevent waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. We owe it to the American people to get answers about how California’s negligence allowed tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to be lost to fraud, especially as President Biden is trying to appoint Julie Su as the next Secretary of Labor. Giving a taxpayer dollar arsonist a bigger match will only lead to a bigger fire,” Comer said in a statement to the Daily Caller.
Biden announced in February that he would nominate Su to replace outgoing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. She was confirmed to the agency’s number two position in 2021 along party lines.
During her April 20 confirmation hearing, Republicans took Su to task for failing to oversee the COVID-19 insurance disbursement. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney excoriated Su, saying that Su’s “record there is so severely lacking, I don’t know how in the world it makes sense for the president to nominate you to take over this department.” Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy later told the Daily Caller that he expects no Republican to support Su’s nomination.
With California Sen. Dianne Feinstein recovering from shingles, Democrats can not afford to lose any votes on Su’s confirmation. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Montana Sen. Jon Tester, and Independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema remain non-committal on their votes.