A quick response for State Assembly Republicans as California continues its battle with the Trump Administration over fraud.

Earlier this month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the state’s latest crackdown on fraud dubbed Operation Skip Trace.

This operation discovered a scheme that defrauded Medi-Cal OF $267 million and busted a major hospice operation.

It’s something Bonta says is the latest in a slew of crackdowns the state’s been doing for years.

“This is just the latest example of the California DOJ’s longstanding ongoing and successful efforts to combat hospice and medical fraud,” Bonta said. “We have been doing this work for years. We’ve been doing it successfully before certain people in this country decided to think about it for the first time.”

But in a collaborated response to the operation on April 15th, State Republicans, like Heath Flora, say this issue has become more prominent recently. Countering Bonta’s claims.

“Over the last, really since last year, California’s had a fraud issue,” Flora said. “We’ve had an issue of not knowing where monies are going. And when we have a billions of dollar deficit, I think it’s time the taxpayers know where their money’s being spent.”

To put more detail on the issue, several assembly members spoke about the funds they say are being misplaced.

Assemblywoman Laurie Davies Described the issues with sober living homes in Southern California.

“Patient brokers are paid thousands in kickbacks in fraudulent schemes to lure vulnerable addicts to our state with free flights and rent, only to exploit their insurance and dump them on the street once the money runs out,” Davies said. “California’s anti-broking laws are gummy bears compared to the bear traps in other states. Because many sober living homes are unlicensed and unregulated by DHCS, they operate in a legal gray area that protects the predator, not the patient.”

Representative of the 72nd District Diane Dixon explained the ongoing concerns with homelessness spending.

“To put the scope of this problem in perspective, the state has spent, at last count, more than 37 billion of taxpayer money, $37 billion of taxpayer money, since 2019 for housing and homelessness related programs across the state,” Dixon said. “There has been a shocking lack of accountability within this fragmented approach to providing homelessness services.”

Josh Hoover of District 7 echoed this ongoing problem, while also mentioning the problems with the newest 911 system.

“Thirty seven billion dollars has been spent on homelessness, all while we have seen the homeless population in California increase just over the last six years, going from 151,000 individuals in California just a few years ago to over 187,000 individuals today,” Hoover said. “Four hundred and fifty million dollars spent on a next generation 911 system that our own agency now says they can’t even turn on, and they can’t make work.”

Because of all of these issues, the Assembly Republican Caucus sent a letter to the Governor’s Office, calling for a special session on fraud in state programs.

Although she didn’t take the podium to speak, Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo, representing the 33rd district of Tulare, Fresno and Kings Counties, responded to Bonta’s operation results.

Macedo says this latest result was thanks to her endless push for accountability, but more needs to be done.

In a statement Macedo continues with this message saying in part quote

“It is unacceptable that Governor Newsom is playing ‘whack-a-mole’ with criminals when we should be locking the front door. Every day the Governor delays implementing strict regulatory guardrails is another day that taxpayers’ money is diverted from dying patients into the pockets of fraudsters.”