“To establish a national task force to investigate and combat fraud involving Federal dollars.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes the Federal Fraud Interagency Task Force (Task Force) not later than 90 days after enactment of this Act to investigate and combat fraud involving federal dollars, enhance interagency anti-fraud coordination, and recover misused funds. The President must appoint a Director with 10 years of experience in fraud investigation or federal law enforcement to a 4-year term, and one subject matter expert member from each covered agency (i.e., specified departments including State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and any other agency designated by the President), all not later than 180 days after enactment. Vacancies are filled in the same manner as original appointments. The Task Force must (1) investigate fraud allegations involving federal dollars; (2) coordinate with state and local law enforcement; (3) develop best practices and training for agencies to prevent and identify fraud; (4) facilitate interagency data and resource sharing; and (5) integrate existing federal anti-fraud initiatives. Not later than one year after enactment and annually thereafter, the Director must submit to the President and specified congressional committees (House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs) a report on investigations initiated, cases referred for prosecution, funds recovered, agency activities and contributions, fraud trends by sector and agency, and recommendations for prevention and detection. Separately, the Comptroller General must conduct an annual audit of the Task Force's operations and spending, beginning one year after enactment. The section defines "fraud" as the intentional perversion of truth to induce another to part with something of value or surrender a legal right.