Collins, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Recover Billions in Fraudulent Pandemic Unemployment Payments

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins joined a group of her colleagues in introducing the Chase COVID Unemployment Fraud Act to recover funds from fraudulent pandemic unemployment payments and provide incentives for states to recover fraudulent payments. 

“Early in the pandemic, Congress boosted federal unemployment benefits rapidly in order to assist the growing number of Americans who lost their jobs during the pandemic through no fault of their own.  Unfortunately, far too many criminals took advantage of these federal unemployment insurance programs, resulting in widespread fraud.  The government has an obligation to taxpayers to recover as much of this stolen money as possible,” said Senator Collins. “Our legislation would provide states with the resources to help recover these stolen funds and help prevent future theft of unemployment benefits.”

In May 2022, the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General reported that an estimated $163 billion were siphoned away by fraudsters, and that if the government’s best estimate is accurate, only 2.4 percent of wrongful payments have been recovered. 

With only approximately $4 billion in unemployment fraud recovered so far, the legislation would jumpstart efforts to claw back American taxpayer funds and pursue recovery of fraudulent payments by ensuring aggressive identification, investigation, and prosecution of criminal fraud in pandemic unemployment programs. 

In addition to Senator Collins, the legislation was introduced by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Deb Fischer (R-NE), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mitt Romney (R-UT), John Thune (R-SD), and Pat Toomey (R-PA).

Click HERE to read the bill text.