Congress
Arrington, eager to appease fiscal hawks, proposes $28B boost to health fraud busting
The House Budget Committee chair and five other GOP lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that boosts funding to fight health care fraud by $28 billion through 2030.
The Anti-Fraud Fund Act led by Budget Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas and Rep. Blake Moore of Utah is in service of one of the Trump administration’s top second term priorities: targeting government fraud. And it comes at a time when fiscal hawks in the GOP are threatening to oppose new war funding President Donald Trump has requested because of the cost.
Arrington has sought to convince them the administration is doing its part to control the deficit by fighting fraud.
The bill offers an extra $28 billion to the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program, created in 1996 to fund Justice and Health Department investigations and health fraud education.
“This joint DOJ-HHS program has a 7:1 return for dollars saved for every dollar spent,” said Moore in a statement.
He added that the legislation will empower CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz to “bring accountability to Medicare and Medicaid providers.”
Other co-sponsors are Reps. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, Mike Carey of Ohio, Addison McDowell of North Carolina and Jay Obernolte of California.
The legislation comes as House Republican fiscal hawks express wariness about a party-line spending bill Arrington is shepherding. That spending measure would include $95 billion for the Iran war and aid for farmers, as well as other Republican priorities, but no offsets to cover the costs.
It also does not include any extra funding for combating fraud, which Arrington has touted to his committee members as a major cost saver; Vice President JD Vance has echoed that argument.
Arrington also told Blue Light News Tuesday he believes the House could put together yet another party-line reconciliation bill later this year — an idea floated by some in House GOP leadership — to assuage lawmakers who are angry their priorities are not in the war funding bill the House is now considering. That later bill could include more funding to fight fraud, he said.
“We have not tens, but hundreds of billions in savings on fraud prevention,” Arrington said. “This is not for this moment. We have to keep this [current reconciliation bill] so clean.”
The later bill could be passed in the lame duck session after the November midterm elections, he added.
The Congressional Budget Office, which determines whether bills save the federal government money, is developing a report to examine how more fraud-busting resources could offset new spending.
The legislation comes as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has ramped up fraud scrutiny in the government health care programs, primarily in blue states. CMS announced on Tuesday it has withheld more than $1 billion in Medicaid funding to both Minnesota and California over what it deems suspect payment claims.
Mia McCarthy contributed to this story.
Senate Republicans on Wednesday circulated new text of a landmark cryptocurrency bill, unveiling changes to the so-called Clarity Act ahead of a potential floor vote next week.
The new language, which needs bipartisan support to pass the Senate, does not currently have sign-off from any Democrats. The bill would overhaul a wide range of federal financial regulations to incorporate crypto trading.
The 616-page draft includes a White House-approved ethics provision that would put in place new rules related to how federal officials can engage with digital assets. Democrats have long demanded that the crypto bill include an ethics provision to address concerns about the Trump family’s lucrative crypto businesses. But they have already signaled that the provision Republicans have agreed to may not go far enough to win their support.
The ethics language stems from an agreement between GOP senators and the White House, and it does not currently have support from any Democrats.
The ethics language would be enforceable by the Department of Justice — a major sticking point for Democrats, who say the DOJ under Trump can’t be trusted. They have pushed for state attorneys general to have a role in enforcing ethics language in the bill.
The draft ethics language says that the attorney general “shall bring a civil action in an appropriate district court of the United States against” a government official who “knowingly and willfully violates” the requirements in the provision or “a digital asset intermediary that knowingly and willingly violates” them. The draft language specifically stipulates that “no action, public or private, may be brought under this section by any State attorney general or any person other than the Attorney General.”
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), who voted for the crypto bill in committee but has cautioned that her support is conditional on further changes being made on ethics and other issues, said this week that any enforcement language empowering only the DOJ is “an unserious offer.”
“I wouldn’t support the bill if that’s the language,” she said in a statement Tuesday. “But we’ll keep working from that floor to reach an agreement that holds us all accountable.”
The ethics proposal stipulates that federal officials “shall not, in exchange for consideration,” “issue a digital asset” or “sponsor a digital asset” while serving as a public employee.
The prohibitions would apply to public officials or employees and their spouses and would sunset in 2029. The language bars crypto companies from listing assets that are “issued” or “sponsored” by federal officials in violation of the provision.
Timing: Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that he hopes to put a landmark cryptocurrency bill on the floor next week, signaling he intends to put it up for a vote whether it has the bipartisan support necessary to pass or not.
Asked if he is close to teeing up the bill for consideration next week, Thune said: “Hopefully.”
“Once the text is out, we’ll have to figure out what the traffic will bear, what changes have to be incorporated in order to 60 on the floor,” he said.
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
Newly seated Sen. Darline Graham said she thinks her late brother’s work in Congress took a toll on his body, causing his sudden death earlier this month.
“I begged him to slow down. I knew it was not going to be good. And I had already prayed, and knew in my heart, that one day something was going to happen,” she said of late-Sen. Lindsey Graham. “I feel like it took him from us.”
Darline Graham gave the emotionally raw remarks during the Senate Budget Committee’s first meeting since the death of her brother, who was previously the panel chair.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the committee’s new chair, also said he believes Lindsey Graham’s advocacy for foreign policy issues and aggressive travel schedule caused his death.
“I think it cost him his life,” Johnson said, noting Graham’s travel to Turkey and Ukraine in the days before he died July 11. “So that’s his lasting legacy. He dedicated his life. He gave his life to this country.”
The official cause of death for Graham was an aortic dissection caused by cardiovascular disease.
Johnson called for lawmakers to attempt more bipartisan policy efforts in Graham’s memory: “We’re going to miss his demonstration of how to work together. It’s maybe a wake-up call.”
Democrats on the panel also noted the late senator’s ability to bring lawmakers from both parties together on policy issues while also influencing President Donald Trump.
“We are a grimmer and a dumber place without Lindsey Graham,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). “Our prospects as a body are narrower. Our boundaries are more constrained, and frankly, more tedious.”
Maine Democrat Troy Jackson has raised $1 million in the less than two weeks since he entered the race for Senate shortly after Graham Platner dropped out, his campaign told Blue Light News on Wednesday morning.
Jackson, the presumptive Democratic nominee, raised $613,000 of that haul since Sunday following the selection of the 601 delegates who will determine Platner’s replacement this weekend. More than 90 percent of those delegates have pledged to back Jackson.
The fundraising number is a strong showing for Jackson, who only raised a bit over $1 million in his entire run for governor earlier this year. But he still has a lot of work to do to catch up to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is sitting on an $11 million war chest.
Jackson’s campaign said they received 27,283 contributions from 24,669 individual donors. A University of New Hampshire poll released Tuesday showed Jackson with a narrow lead against Collins, 49 percent to 46 percent.
The Maine Senate seat is a must-win for Democrats hoping to retake control of the upper chamber. Collins is the only sitting Republican senator up for reelection in a state that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024.
- Republicans release new crypto bill text, with Trump-blessed ethics provision included
- Darline Graham: Her brother’s work ‘took him from us’
- House passes stopgap funding bill, months before shutdown deadline
- Pressed for answers on scandals, Texas’ Ken Paxton abandons press conference
- Trump gutted the agency built to stop election interference
- Why Trump’s reported attempts to minimize Iran war casualties won’t work
- Rep. Andy Biggs wins Arizona GOP gubernatorial primary to face Katie Hobbs in November
- House passes temporary funding bill months early to avoid election season shutdown
- Maine Democrat Troy Jackson has raised $1M for his Senate bid so far
- Capitol agenda: GOP defectors threaten budget vote
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