Rep. Lamborn Calls for Audit of Department of Labor over COVID-19 Related Unemployment Fraud

Washington, D.C. – Today, Representative Lamborn and Representative Steel led a letter with 28 of their colleagues to the Department of Labor's Acting Inspector General Larry Turner. The letter calls on the Inspector General to conduct an official audit to establish to what extent fraud occur in COVID-related unemployment assistance programs, issued through the U.S. Department of Labor, and determine the amount of taxpayer dollars that have been wasted. While the Office of Inspector General predicts that nearly $89 billion has been improperly paid, the security company, ID.me estimates that possibly half of all claims, or more than $400 billion, have been fraudulent.

"The Department of Labor must be thoroughly audited. We must determine the total amount of money that has been fraudulently distributed throughout the last two years," said Representative Lamborn. "I am deeply concerned that American taxpayer dollars have even gone to overseas foreign nationals posing as American citizens. It is past time that the Department of Labor determine the total amount of taxpayer dollars that have been wasted. I am grateful for the support of my colleague Rep. Steel on this crucial issue and look forward to the Department's prompt reply."

"The widespread fraud in pandemic unemployment assistance is a gross abuse of taxpayer dollars, and we still do not know the full amount that has been paid out to fraudsters and criminals. We should all be on the side of good governance and protection of taxpayer money," stated Representative Steel. "We need a full audit to ensure something like this never happens again."

Read the letter, here.