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Massive Fraud in Covid Aid Programs

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Fri, Feb 18, 2022 12:24 AM

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Plus, the Senate passes a bill to avert a Saturday shutdown ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ �

Plus, the Senate passes a bill to avert a Saturday shutdown ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [The Fisc](   By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Happy Thursday! There won’t be a government shutdown this weekend. Senate Passes Stopgap Funding Bill to Avert a Saturday Shutdown The Senate just approved a stopgap extension of government funding through March 11, buying appropriators more time to work out a full-year spending deal. The vote was 65-27. With lawmakers racing this week to meet a Friday deadline, when current funding was set to expire — and eager to leave town ahead of the Presidents’ Day holiday — the process was slowed by a number of Republicans demanding votes on amendments to the funding bill. An amendment by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah would have blocked federal funds from being used to enforce the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates. It failed, 46-47. An amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas sought to prevent federal money from going to schools, child care centers or Head Start programs with vaccine requirements. It was rejected in a 44-49 vote. The final amendment, from Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, would have required lawmakers to balance the federal budget unless two-thirds of senators agreed to waive or suspend that provision. That amendment needed 60 votes but was rejected, 47-45. $30 Billion in Additional Covid Funding in Jeopardy Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told lawmakers this week that his department needs an additional $30 billion to maintain the federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but some appropriators are worried about the viability of including those funds in the spending package for fiscal year 2022. According to [Politico]( the HHS request breaks down as "$18 billion for Covid treatments and vaccines, $5 billion for testing, $3 billion to cover care for the uninsured, $3.7 billion to develop vaccines to protect against future variants and $500 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s public health surveillance work." Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) told Politico that Democrats are focused on successfully negotiating the main spending package for the year and leery of adding additional provisions that could jeopardize the process. "Anything that detracts from that is a heavier lift," he said. Still, there is interest in providing more funding. "So, there is a reluctance to do a supplemental but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen," Cardin added, referring to the supplemental bill that would potentially provide the additional funds. GOP opposition: The top Republican negotiator, Sen. Richard Shelby (AL), the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, expressed doubts about the HHS request. "Where are we going to get the money?" he said, adding that he would have to review the request carefully. And he warned that opening the door to new funding requests could complicate the negotiations. "Once you start a vehicle moving, a lot of people want to ride on it," he said. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KA) rejected the idea entirely. "Most people think we’ve borrowed enough money from our grandchildren," he said. "And, I’ll tell you, inflation is the number one concern I hear from people back home. So instead of [the supplemental], I think we need to end the declaration of emergency for Covid, stop the fear mongering, and encourage people to go back to work." In the House, Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington made it clear that she, presumably like many of her conservative colleagues, has no interest in providing more resources for the federal response to Covid. "It’s time to unwind this pandemic of bureaucracy, get government out of the way, and allow Americans to return to normal life," she said. Democrats to keep pushing: Democrats say they will continue to work to secure additional funds. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said the money would be a "smart investment" in the current environment. "The Biden administration is trying to do the right thing and make sure they have the resources to be prepared for the next Covid variant," she said. If the effort to include the Covid response funding in the annual spending package fails, Democrats may try to provide it through other legislation. "If we don’t get it done, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible," Warren said. "We may have other vehicles that move." Massive Fraud in Covid Aid Programs a Massive Challenge for the Government The extraordinary government response to the coronavirus crisis — nearly $6 trillion worth of aid programs — is widely credited with cushioning the economic blow of the pandemic and setting the stage for a strong rebound. But the unprecedented response was also accompanied by unprecedented levels of fraud, as one federal watchdog [told]( Congress a few weeks ago — and the difficulties of tracking the rescue funds and cracking down on criminals are made worse by gaps in the data and a shortage of funding for the watchdogs tasked with doing so. The Washington Post’s Tony Romm details the enormity of the challenge, particularly for the Small Business Administration, in a lengthy [article]( Thursday, noting that government officials and outside experts "warn the U.S. government could face years of expensive and intricate sleuthing work" in trying to track down billions and billions of dollars in overpayments, questionable loans and criminal fraud. For example, the inspector general for the Small Business Administration told Congress in a report late last year that the agency had referred more than 845,000 aid applications for suspected identity theft "while still disbursing $6.2 billion in loan funds and $468 million in advance grants to these applicants." And the full scale of the problem may not yet be clear. "[T]he most potent challenge facing federal watchdogs may still be on the horizon, as Washington begins to grapple with the decisions that allowed it to disburse trillions in aid with such haste in the first place," Romm writes. "After all, the loans the government made must be forgiven or repaid, meaning the worst might be yet to come." [Read the full article at The Washington Post.]( US ‘Excess Death’ Total From Pandemic Tops 1 Million The U.S. has now recorded more than 1 million "excess deaths" since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The tally includes deaths directly attributed to the coronavirus as well as from other causes such as heart attacks, and is generally seen as a broader measure of the overall health cost of the pandemic. The number is produced by comparing total recorded deaths to the trend line from before the pandemic began, with the increase attributed to the complex medical and social changes caused by the virus. Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, [told The Washington Post]( that there was a clear increase in all kinds of deaths during the pandemic. "We’ve never seen anything like it," he said. News - [Biden Touts $1 Billion in Funding for Great Lakes Restoration, During Trip to Ohio]( – Washington Post - [Vulnerable Senate Dems Try to Run as Tax-Cutters]( – Politico - [Bill to Suspend Gas Tax Is Panned by Transport Groups]( – Roll Call - [White House Economists Push Back Against Pressure to Blame Corporate Power for Inflation]( – Washington Post - [Inflation Tops List of Most Urgent Issues Facing US: Poll]( – The Hill - [FTC Won't Study Pharmacy Benefit Managers]( – Axios - [Biden’s New Global Vaccine Push Is Running Out of Funds]( – Politico - [U.S. to Spend $250 Million in Vaccine Support to African Countries]( – Axios - [Americans Are Tired of the Pandemic. But Disease Experts Preach Caution — and Endure a ‘Kill the Messenger’ Moment]( – Washington Post - [COVID-19 Rules Boomerang on Democrats]( – The Hill - [The $1.7 Billion Student Loan Deal That Was Too Good to Be True]( – New York Times Views and Analysis - [U.S. Treasury's Golden Fed Goose Is About to Get Cooked]( – Bill Dudley, Bloomberg - [The Bond Market Is Sending a Worrying Message About the Economy]( – Liz McCormick and Michael Mackenzie, Bloomberg - [The Fed Is Setting Out to Kill Inflation. Brace for Collateral Damage]( – Victoria Guida, Politico - [Brace Yourself: The Economy Is About to Get Bumpier]( – Kevin T. Dugan, New York - [The Fight Against Inflation Is Becoming a Class War]( – Leah Downey, Foreign Policy - [The Big Problem With Democrats’ Gas Tax Holiday Dreams]( – Tanya Snyder, Politico - [The Senate Moves in Slow Motion. Could This Speed It Up?]( – Carl Hulse, New York Times - [A Glimmer of Hope for Common-Sense, Bipartisan Policymaking]( – Washington Post Editorial Board - [Congress’s Short-Term Funding Bills Are a Terrible Way to Govern]( – Li Zhou, Vox - [Biden Keeps Blaming the Supply Chain for Inflation. That’s Dishonest]( – Steven Rattner, New York Times - [The Time for ‘Gradual’ Moves on Inflation Is Over]( – Washington Post Editorial Board - [Progressives Are Up in Arms Over a Medicare Experiment]( – Rachel Roubein, Washington Post - [The Driving Force Behind Medicare Part B's Price Increase Was Blunted—the Price Hike Should Be, Too]( – Reps. Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Angie Craig (D-MN), The Hill - [Estimated 73% of US Now Immune to Omicron: Is That Enough?]( – Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press - [GOP Says Easing Covid Rules Is All Politics. It’s Not All Politics]( – Olivier Knox, Washington Post - [The Moral Danger of Declaring the Pandemic Over Too Soon]( – Gregg Gonsalves, New York Times - [Why I’m Not Ready to Unmask]( – John M. Barry, Washington Post - [Is Tech’s Love Affair With Miami About Taxes, or Something Else?]( – Kara Swisher and Keith Rabois, New York Times (podcast) Copyright © 2020 The Fiscal Times, All rights reserved. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed at our website or through Facebook. The Fiscal Times, 399 Park Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10022, United States Want to change how you receive these emails? [Update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe](

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