A California congressman is calling on a congressional watchdog to look into claims his state has suffered billions of waste, fraud and abuse.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) penned a letter to the head honcho at the United States Government Accountability Office, a non-partisan watchdog employed by Congress, on Tuesday.
Kiley told Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown that he believes the widespread fraud perpetrated in Minnesota “pales in comparison” to the Golden State’s.
He cited billions of unemployment fraud reported by Lexus Nexus during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fraud-riddled homeless aid effort.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lexus Nexus estimated state unemployment fraud reached
$32.6 billion,” he wrote. “Unemployed Californians had their benefits stolen and taxpayers were taxed to
fund criminals.”
“The state’s effort to aid the homeless is also riddled with waste and fraud,” Kiley added. “The
state auditor examined spending on programs to reduce homelessness between 2019 and 2024.
Despite $24 billion in spending, the number of homeless increased by 30,000 during that period
and no grant recipients provided metrics that demonstrated any sort of progress.”
Kiley thinks that pointing to the congressional watchdog to California will alleviate the fraud issues. He specifically asked them to examine the total amount of fraud in the state since 2016, a breakdown of fraud by economic sector, what types of people are committing the fraud, how the stolen funds are used, and how California can learn from instances of fraud there.
“Congress has a fundamental responsibility to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent lawfully and protected from criminal misuse,” Kiley said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, California has repeatedly failed to safeguard public funds, with devastating consequences for taxpayers and for the most vulnerable people these programs are meant to help,” he added.
Los Angeles isn’t insulated from the statewide fraud. The Department of Justice charged two real estate developers last fall for allegedly misusing about $50 million of federal, state and local funding that was earmarked for homelessness.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has sought to redirect attention away from his state’s fraud, pointing to shady practices and instances of alleged fraud in red states.
“Just catching up on all the fraud in Kristi Noem’s South Dakota,” his press office wrote on X, captioning a news story about a state employee stealing $1.8 million from Child Protection Services. In a different post, his press office cited a story about a man indicted for $71 million of organics fraud.
The Post exclusively reported a bill last week from California congresswoman Young Kim aiming to also crack down on waste and abuse on the state and local levels.
The bill, the No More Scams Act, would require President Donald Trump to establish a federal fraud interagency task force within 90 days of enactment and to appoint a director within 180 days, the bill says.
“We’re gonna have one quarterback on the field, one game plan and one goal, and that is to stop the fraud, cut through the bureaucracy and win back taxpayers money,” she told The Post. “It will require coordination across all different federal agencies so that they can investigate fraud involving federal dollars.”
Trump said California was being investigated for fraud early last month.