Over the past five years, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) and its data analytics center have demonstrated the ability to prevent fraud and improper payments, and to assist law enforcement in pursuing billions of dollars in fraud. We have alerted agency leadership to potential risks and emerging fraud schemes, investigated thousands of pandemic fraud-related cases, and used data to identify potential fraud and other forms of improper payments more quickly. If the PRAC’s data analytics center had been in place in March 2020 at the outset of the pandemic, we would have been able to do critical data analysis upfront before payments were made to help prevent the billions of dollars of pandemic relief funds that were wasted through improper payments and fraud.
I support the bipartisan legislation, the “Federal Accountability Committee for Transparency (FACT) Act of 2025,” reported favorably and unanimously yesterday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The FACT Act of 2025 would maintain this valuable fraud prevention and fraud-fighting tool through December 31, 2026 and rename it the “Fraud Prevention and Accountability Committee.” I thank Chairman James Comer and Ranking Member Gerry Connolly of the full Committee and Chairman Pete Sessions and Ranking Member Kweisi Mfume of the Government Operations Subcommittee for their bipartisan leadership on this antifraud initiative that will improve the integrity of federal programs, and protect taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse. I look forward to working with the Committee and other Members of Congress to advance, and potentially expand on, this important reform and ensure the Inspector General community is equipped to both prevent and fight fraud with advanced technology and data analytics.
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The PRAC was established by the CARES Act to promote transparency and support independent oversight of the funds provided by the CARES Act and other related emergency spending bills. In addition to its coordination and oversight responsibilities, the PRAC is tasked with supporting efforts to “prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement [and] mitigate major risks that cut across program and agency boundaries.”
If you have additional questions, please contact Lisa Reijula at lisa.reijula@cigie.gov.