Just weeks after President Donald Trump said on social media that he would direct his administration to investigate California for widespread fraud, Republicans within the delegation are all in on an effort to crack down on the misuse and abuse of federal funds.
“People across the country are rightly outraged by the fraud that has been discovered in the state of Minnesota. But for those of us in California, we have almost become desensitized to it, because every time there has been an independent audit, it seems, of any program in California, what is discovered is fraud on a scale that dwarfs anything that was discovered in Minnesota,” railed Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., in a floor speech this week.
Kiley wrote a letter to the Government Accountability Office Tuesday, asking for a study of “the amount of waste, fraud and abuse California has fallen victim to.”
He cited a number of instances in which fraud occurred in the state, including billions during the COVID-19 pandemic and real estate executives pocketing millions from programs intended for the homeless.
And Kiley isn’t alone. Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., introduced legislation this week to create a Federal Fraud Interagency Task Force. The Government Accountability Office reported last year that during the 2024 fiscal year, the federal government paid out about $162 billion in improper payment.
“What we’re trying to do is put real teeth and go after investigating the fraud, waste and abuse that is occurring across the nation,” Kim told Spectrum News in an interview Thursday. “This legislation calls for making sure that our current investigations are fragmented — everybody is tripping over one agency doing one thing, the other agency doing one thing — nobody is coordinating it.”
Kim’s legislation, if passed, directs the president to establish the task force within 90 days and appoint a director and members of the task force within 180 days. Per the legislation, the director must have 10 years of experience in fraud investigation or federal law enforcement.
“We’re not looking for political appointees; we’re looking for people with great experience that have done this kind of work investigating fraud across the country,” she explained.
The president has cited California in recent months as a hotbed of fraud, even writing on social media that he was directing an investigation into California for that very reason. But so far, few details have emerged.
The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said protecting taxpayer dollars is a major priority of his, but that the approach of the Trump administration is troubling.
“I have a whole team that protects and defends those tax dollars and roots out that fraud. It holds people accountable. But the lie here is that the government of California is somehow in on the fraud. And that’s dangerous, reckless, wild, wrong,” said Bonta. “There are some criminal groups who try to defraud the government. The government is a victim in those situations, and we must harden our programs from being able to be taken advantage of.”
Bonta’s office said that over the past decade, the California DOJ has recovered nearly $2.7 billion in fraud against the state and conducted 2,490 criminal investigations.
On Thursday, Bonta announced the arrests of and filing of multiple felony charges against seven individuals for hospice fraud in Monterey County.
Kim said she commends the work Bonta has done, but placed the blame for fraud on the “failed policies of Sacramento and Gov. Newsom.”
“It pains me to say California has become the fraud capital of the nation. And we have a governor who is traveling around the nation, around the world with the goal of running for president in 2028. God forbid that happens, then he’s going to take the fraud circus to the White House,” she sniped.
Some Democrats we spoke with said they welcomed an investigation, such as Rep. Lou Correa, who said he thinks “everybody should be investigated.”
“We welcome full transparency everywhere, not just California, though,” he caveated.
Rep. Robert Garcia, who is the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, told Spectrum News that he thinks “everyone supports making government better, and everyone supports us cutting any sort of tax wasted money happening in government.”
But Garcia called these broad accusations of fraud “pretty unfounded.”
“Trying to take away social services from working-class people and people that are poor in their suffering, I think is wrong,” he said. “Let’s focus on a real government, on solutions, not on attacking people.”