Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act

Key Points

• The bill creates a permanent Inspector General for Fraud, Accountability, and Recovery inside the Treasury Department. This new watchdog will oversee how the government spends money across many programs, focusing on detecting and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse. The Inspector General will be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
• The Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service will run a governmentwide data-sharing program that lets federal, state, and local governments share information about known fraudulent actors and screen payment recipients before sending out money. The program is voluntary but designed to catch fraud across many programs.
• The temporary Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) will be shut down on December 31, 2028, and all of its staff, data, tools, contracts, and unspent funds will be transferred to the new permanent office. This preserves the fraud-fighting expertise built up during COVID-era spending oversight.
• The new office must publish a public-facing website showing oversight reports and findings on how government money is being spent. The site is meant to serve as a centralized portal for anti-fraud and accountability information so taxpayers can see what is happening with their money.
• The definition of 'covered funds' subject to oversight is very broad, including pandemic relief, SBA loans, unemployment benefits, infrastructure spending, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, the PACT Act, and any federal award of $50,000 or more. This gives the new office a wide reach across government spending.

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