Congress has appropriated more than $4.6 trillion in response to COVID-19, much of which has nothing to do with the pandemic. This does not include the proposed $1.75 (really $4.9) trillion Build Back Better Act, which stalled in the Senate. Of the $4.6 trillion, 78%, or $3.6 trillion, has been spent by 44 different federal agencies. With such a massive amount of spending in such a short period of time by a government that has an abysmal track record on fiscal responsibility, there has already been a significant amount of waste, fraud, and abuse, which will only grow larger as agency watchdogs catch up with the rate of expenditures.
The Secret Service has uncovered $100 billion in the theft of COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, with only 2% of that money recovered and more than 100 suspects arrested. If this is the number of people caught, there is no telling the full number of criminals who defrauded these programs. Cleaning up the mess after the money has been stolen is the government’s usual and ineffective approach, rather than establishing preventive processes and systems that will stop the money from being wasted in the first place.
On Jan. 27, the Government Accountability Office made five new recommendations beyond its 246 previous proposals for “significant improvement” for oversight and responses to COVID-19 and other public health emergencies. The recommendations covered emergency rental assistance, nutrition, assistance, and business tax relief. The GAO also added the leadership and coordination of public health emergencies at the Department of Health and Human Services to its High-Risk List.
The Department of Treasury has spent the most of all agencies, more than $1.38 trillion, followed by Small Business Administration at $934 billion. The Treasury has disbursed $38 billion out of $46.6 billion available for the Emergency Rental Assistance program, which provides funds to households unable to pay rent or other expenses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The GAO found that the department had no process for reviews of grantees that could verify the eligibility for and accuracy of the ERA payments. Simply put, like a child in a candy shop, there were no control measures or oversight.
The size and scope of federal government waste are so large that it is sometimes difficult to explain how it affects individuals and their families. One way to view this problem is through a local lens, like when a small rural community of 41 houses in Iowa finds out that an unreasonable amount of money was spent on snow removal and road maintenance. The impact of the wasteful spending is far more personal and noticeable since the budget meetings are small and held at someone’s house, and decisions are not made behind closed doors by members of Congress who are not directly affected by their decisions about spending.
Keeping governments small and local means less overreach and making governments more reachable. Getting federal legislators to be accessible, responsible, and accountable is already a challenge. Too much of the money from the funds for COVID-19 “relief” to date is already being wasted, and the Biden administration’s efforts to spend trillions of dollars more will make it far worse.
The Founding Fathers intended for the powers of the centralized federal government to be limited. They understood the necessity to keep government small enough to fit inside the Constitution. Today, the federal government is involved in every aspect of our lives, and it is far too easy for the government to overreach and overspend. And the most concerning aspect of all is the power of unelected bureaucrats in federal agencies to spend hundreds of billions of tax dollars without any real consequences for failing to spend the money effectively and efficiently.
The waste and abuse in COVID-19 pandemic relief programs are the perfect depiction of a government that is too big and needs reform. The Jan. 27 GAO report, which is similar to many prior GAO reports, will this time hopefully be a wake-up call for greater fiscal accountability and responsibility.
Christina Herrin is the director of health and science policy at Citizens Against Government Waste.
