Crapo, Risch, Colleagues Press White House for Accounting of Trillions in Covid-19 Spending

Washington, D.C.--After President Biden reiterated in his State of the Union address his plans to ask Congress for additional COVID-19 funding, U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and 33 additional Republican colleagues are asking the President for a thorough accounting of how the government has spent the nearly $6 trillion in taxpayer funds to combat the pandemic.  The public deserves detailed information on the allocation of funds before Congress even considers additional COVID-19 funding requests from the White House.

“Recent news reports indicate the Administration is poised to request an additional $30 billion from Congress for its response to COVID-19,” the senators wrote.  “While we have supported historic, bipartisan measures in the United States Senate to provide unprecedented investments in vaccines, therapeutics, and testing, it is not yet clear why additional funding is needed.”

“…Since passage of the American Rescue Plan in February, questions are mounting about where exactly the additional money has gone,” the senators continued.  “A recent investigative report from the Washington Post headlined, ‘Immense fraud creates immense task for Washington as it tries to tighten scrutiny of $6 trillion in emergency coronavirus spending’ details the federal government’s shocking failure to provide the American public with a faithful accounting of how it has spent its money.”

“…Congress must receive a full accounting of how the government has already spent the first $6 trillion,” the senators concluded.

In addition to Senators Crapo, Risch and Romney, signatories to the letter include Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), John Boozman (R-Arkansas), Mike Braun (R-Indiana), Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), John Thune (R-South Dakota), Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania), Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and Todd Young (R-Indiana).

As Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Crapo has led other oversight efforts on the American Rescue Plan, including:

• Sending a letter urging the U.S. Department of the Treasury to follow a strong oversight framework of the American Rescue Plan, similar to that employed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act;
• Sending a letter calling on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look into whether states and federal agencies were taking proper steps to identify and prevent fraud and improper payments in paying out tax credits for health coverage;
• Sending a letter to GAO urging it investigate scope and severity of fraudulent activity in COVID unemployment insurance programs;
• Urging the U.S. Department of Labor to devote more funds to the detection and prevention of unemployment insurance fraud; and
• Introducing legislation to prevent fraud in COVID unemployment programs, recover fraudulently paid benefits and provide relief for taxpayers and victims of unemployment fraud.

Click HERE to access the full text of the letter.

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