Government fraud-prevention efforts are on the rise

If you didn’t know better, you’d think June has been officially declared National Government Fraud Prevention Month. It was not, but it at least deserves some special recognition, given the profusion of anti-fraud measures being sent to the floor of the House of Representatives.

By my count, seven major fraud-fighting bills were cleared by the House Rules Committee for floor action during the first, second and fourth weeks of this month. As House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) exclaimed, “We have a mandate to root out fraud and disembowel it.”

Another 15 less controversial measures of similar character over those three weeks were approved under the suspension of the rules process that allows for limited debate, no amendments, and requires a two-thirds vote for passage.

What has caused this sudden interest in exposing government related fraud? One can understandably attribute it to the upcoming midterm elections for control of Congress and the uncertainty over their outcome. It has certainly spurred a more activist posture on Capitol Hill than was previously evident. Scoring points off the opposition party by milking contentious issues has historically characterized that struggle.

This particular controversy, however, was not manufactured out of whole cloth. It is traceable to recent charges about fraud being perpetrated on the federal government. This month’s spate of activity was jump-started by the release on June 8 of a staff report of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, titled in part, “The Cost of Doing Nothing.” It........

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