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Congressional Daily Record
This section captures a floor statement or debate entry. It mentions members such as John A. Barrasso.
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June 16, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, criminals are actively stealing billions
of dollars from hard-working taxpayers. They are doing it through fraud, and the way to stop fraud is to punish those who commit it. And that is exactly what Republicans are doing.
and inevitable. Criminals defrauded hard-working taxpayers by deception and deceit. Democrats knew about it. They looked the other way.
Republicans are putting an end to it. We made fighting fraud a top priority. That is how to protect hard-working taxpayers and their money.
Republicans passed the Working Families Tax Cut law. We strengthened eligibility requirements for Medicaid. We ensured that illegal immigrants did not receive taxpayer-funded healthcare. We put in place work requirements for Medicaid and for food stamps.
At the same time, President Trump created an anti-fraud task force. Vice President Vance is leading the charge here. He has an incredible effort going on now, and he is working with clarity and urgency.
Criminals are now hearing a clear message: No amount of fraud is too small to prosecute.
zero for fraud. We know the story. Let me tell you how bad fraud is in Minnesota. Criminals are using children—children with autism—as a way to get rich quickly.
Mr. President, 8 years ago, the Minnesota Medicaid program for children with autism spent $6 million. The money is needed and used to help children actually diagnosed with autism. But driven by massive criminal fraud, the pricetag ballooned from $6 million to $192 million going out.
How did this happen? Well, the program was being looted by crooks, by criminals, and loaded up with corruption. The money was being siphoned away from children with autism—children in need.
Last month, Federal officials charged 15 individuals for stealing $90 million connected to the State's federally funded healthcare program. According to the Justice Department, that includes the largest autism fraud scheme ever prosecuted.
The schemes didn't stop there. Remember the fraudulent daycare center in Minnesota? No children—zero children—were actually enrolled in that facility. It was set up for one purpose and one purpose only: It was set up to steal money from the U.S. Treasury.
floor talking about daycare centers. Why did the Democrats ignore the abuse of daycare centers to steal money from the American people, from our taxpayers? They don't seem to care about that. They just say: Send more money, send more money, send more money.
when it is the fraud in Minnesota, with their own candidate for Vice President being the Governor, overseeing it, ignoring it, allowing it to happen. They don't seem to care about any of those things.
Well, our colleague Senator Joni Ernst investigated. She discovered one of these so-called daycare centers that Schumer is out here talking about as wonderful things. One of these daycare centers raked in over $230,000 from the Small Business Administration alone, just during the pandemic.
Remember, there were no children at the location—none. The Biden administration looked the other way, and the disgraced Governor of Minnesota looked the other way as well.
exceeding $9 billion. It is a staggering sum. And that is only one State run by Democrats. California is just as bad, if not worse. I would put it as worse.
Last week, many of us met with Dr. Mehmet Oz. Dr. Oz runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, confirmed here by the Senate. Dr. Oz says nearly half of hospice providers in Los Angeles are fraud—fraudulent hospice providers.
do—in terms of caring and compassion, comforting those who are dying, not in California—it is used to defraud the government. Many of these so-called hospices don't serve a single patient. Many are shell offices, all in the same office building.
United States. Somehow, 33 percent of all hospice providers in the entire country are listed in L.A. There aren't that many people who are patients to justify that.
How can it be? Well, it is a racket. That is what it is. It is set up to steal money from the government, from our taxpayers.
it. They refuse to talk about it. They want to keep looking the other way.
stole tens of millions of dollars from Medicaid. The criminals submitted false claims for so-called behavior health services. These services were never provided. Criminals used the money to buy a fleet of luxury vehicles, including Maseratis, Mercedes, and a Bentley.
voted for the Working Families Tax Cut law. They voted to root out exactly this kind of waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption.
Nationwide, total estimates of Medicaid fraud are as much as now $120 billion a year, and the fraud got worse after ObamaCare became law: bigger government, more money, more areas in which criminals can steal.
Medicaid Programs. Those who don't enforce the law will lose Federal funds.
A pattern has emerged. Democrats run the blue States. They control the big cities. And when criminals steal vast amounts of money from hard-working taxpayers, elected Democrats go silent.
silence whistleblowers, who sound the alarm to try to want to point out what is happening. Democrats try to muzzle them.
legislation to fight fraud, to fight waste, to fight abuse, and to fight corruption. Democrats would rather protect thieves than protect hard-working American taxpayers and the people that these programs are created to help.
being exposed. They are finally seeing the results in combatting it, and they want these people to go to jail.
Republicans are fighting the war against fraud. We are fighting to protect taxpayers, to protect vulnerable families, and fighting to punish the criminals who steal from our country and our communities.
The American people deserve accountability. Criminals deserve the consequences.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.