Vance Says Federal Task Force Has Identified $230 Billion In Fraud

Vance provided the update during the administration’s first televised Cabinet meeting from Camp David, where he briefed President Donald Trump and fellow Cabinet members on the progress of the task force, which he chairs.

The task force was established to coordinate anti-fraud efforts across multiple federal agencies as part of what the administration describes as a government-wide strategy to identify waste, fraud and abuse in taxpayer-funded programs.

“Just since the beginning of the fraud task force that I started under the president’s leadership and direction, we have identified $230 billion dollars of fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American people, and we have halted already $56 billion dollars of that,” Vance said.

He acknowledged that recovering taxpayer money after it has already been distributed can be difficult but argued that preventing fraudulent payments before they are made is the most effective way to protect public funds.

“It’s sometimes hard once the money has already gone out the door; it’s hard to get it back,” Vance said. “But stopping it from going out the door is how we save the American people $56 billion. Of course, we’re going to keep on working on that.”

Vance also announced that the administration planned to unveil 17 additional anti-fraud initiatives on Friday that he said would target another estimated $300 million in fraudulent activity.

“Just today, Mr. President, we will announce 17 new anti-fraud actions that will total about a third of a billion dollars, and that’s added to the $230 billion that we’ve already uncovered,” he said.