Congressman Van Drew's PROOF Act Passes House to Crack Down on Fraud in Federal Programs

Washington, DC - Today, Congressman Van Drew announced that H.R. 10326, the Preventing Rip-offs and Obtaining Oversight of Funds (PROOF) Act, has passed through the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill would give federal investigators a direct way to obtain records from states when investigating fraud in programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, unemployment benefits, disaster assistance, and other federally funded programs. "To me, it is simple. If taxpayer money is being stolen, investigators should be able to get the records they need to find out where it went," said Congressman Van Drew. "Right now, that does not always happen. We just saw four states refuse twice to provide SNAP data, to the point where the Justice Department had to take them to court just to get the information. Meanwhile, the states that did cooperate provided data that showed billions of dollars a year going to overpayments and fraud. "The PROOF Act fixes this problem. If the Attorney General is investigating fraud involving federal taxpayer dollars, the state has to provide the records needed for that investigation. We also made sure there are strong privacy protections in place to ensure that the information is only used for the investigation. Every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar not going to a family, senior, or individual counting on that help. It is our responsibility to make sure that these programs are working as they were intended." Click here to read the text of the bill. Click here to watch his remarks in support of H.R. 10326.