Vice President JD Vance is involved in discussions with Senate leadership about advancing anti-fraud legislation before the end of the session, he said in response to a question from the Daily Signal.
Vance answered questions from the press after announcing $2.2 billion in savings of taxpayer dollars due to the White House Taskforce on Fraud cracking down on Obamacare violations.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is canceling subsidy payments for allegedly unauthorized and fraudulent enrollments in Obamacare for 760,000 individual accounts.
The House has passed several anti-fraud bills, such as the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act, the Stop Child Care Scams Act, and the No Aid for Ghost Students Act, but the Senate versions have not yet passed.
“The House has been very forward-leaning on this stuff,” Vance said at a press conference Tuesday. “Obviously, it’s a little bit easier in the House because they don’t have the same set of legislative rules. Stuff that I frankly don’t fully understand.”
“I think we’ve got a lot of work to do,” he added. “There are some pieces of legislation that we think could be codified by the end of the term, meaning the end of the Senate term.”
Vance said he and the Senate will keep working on passing this legislation, but that he wishes congressional Democrats would join the effort to fight fraud.
“It would be a lot easier if congressional Democrats were willing to participate in this work, and the pitch that I’d make to them is: This is not about cutting off anybody from their benefits,” he said. “It’s about cutting off fraudsters from stealing from these programs.”
Vance said he doesn’t know why Democrats are “so uninterested” in fighting fraud, adding that he’d love to have their help.
“If you really believe in food stamps for low-income moms and kids, if you really believe in the Medicare program that provides medical care to our elderly citizens, and I think that all of us do,” he said, “then you should be falling over yourself to help us fight the fraud.”
