[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 53 (Thursday, March 19, 2026)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 13485-13489]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2026-05497]
[[Page 13483]]
Vol. 91
Thursday,
No. 53
March 19, 2026
Part III
The President
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Executive Order 14395--Establishing the Task Force To Eliminate Fraud
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 91 , No. 53 / Thursday, March 19, 2026 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 13485]]
Executive Order 14395 of March 16, 2026
Establishing the Task Force To Eliminate Fraud
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. American taxpayers fund
a vast benefits system for citizens in need that
includes housing, food, medical care, cash assistance,
and more. States administer these federally funded
programs, and some States have embraced loopholes that
avoid individual eligibility validation, allow self-
certification of eligibility, and expand eligibility
far beyond what the Congress intended. Worse, despite
accepting Federal funds, some States have refused to
institute basic fraud controls such as providing
enrollee information to the Federal Government that
would allow it to verify eligibility. As a result,
illegal aliens, criminals, foreign gangs, bureaucrats,
State and local officials, non-governmental
organizations, and ineligible providers exploit these
programs--which are intended to provide a safety net to
lawfully eligible Americans--with ease. This
exploitation and lack of controls to prevent it have
resulted in widespread fraud, waste, and abuse at the
expense of the American taxpayers who pay for and
utilize these programs, contributing substantially to
the national debt.
Self-dealing political actors use such public benefits
programs to solidify control over their communities and
our political systems. Due to lax immigration policy
and immigration fraud, certain public officials admit
into our country, and provide sanctuary from Federal
immigration laws to, migrant populations who are likely
to rely on means-tested, public assistance programs
(welfare) and increase the political support and power
of the public officials providing the benefits. This
increased support incentivizes public officials to
maximize the flow of welfare to these communities and
makes public officials who do so more powerful. Many of
these public officials then fail to police these
programs--and in some cases, willfully turn a blind eye
to fraud, waste, and abuse within them--to ensure that
welfare flows to these migrants. Due to insufficient
election integrity measures, some migrants who are not
eligible to vote do so anyway, with the same public
officials permitting widespread ballot harvesting
schemes that compromise our election integrity and help
these public officials remain in power.
The staggering fraud and waste in Minnesota alone is a
case in point. Federal prosecutors in the State
estimate that Medicaid fraud in recent years could
total in the billions. Nearly 9 percent of the roughly
$866 million spent on food stamps in Minnesota each
year is estimated to be spent in error. The non-profit
Feeding our Future engineered a scam that stole nearly
$250 million intended to feed needy children in
Minnesota by opening fake meal sites and submitting
fraudulent claims for millions of meals that were never
served. One of the defendants in this scam was also
charged with submitting false claims to an autism
services program that was subject to widespread fraud.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal childcare
funding to Minnesota were stolen by an organized ring
of Somali immigrants and others who used the stolen
money to purchase cars, property, and luxury travel,
and sent the funds overseas. The Federal Government is
investigating allegations that some of the United
States taxpayer dollars subject to fraud in Minnesota
were even funneled to one of Africa's most heinous
terror groups. All of this was ignored or undetected by
State officials. There is also strong reason to believe
that similar problems
[[Page 13486]]
exist in other States, including California, Illinois,
New York, Maine, and Colorado. In fact, Minnesota and
20 other States filed a lawsuit to block the Federal
Government from even conducting a basic review to
determine whether their enrollees are in fact eligible
for taxpayer-funded benefits under the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program. Such extensive,
undetected fraud could only exist in a system that
ignores it.
Fraud and mismanagement in these programs constitutes
theft of the hard-earned tax dollars from Americans
paying into these programs, and of the benefits owed to
Americans who need them. The failure to ensure
sufficient Federal oversight to prevent fraud, waste,
and abuse has allowed irresponsible State politicians
to increase Federal spending in their own States, which
has contributed to inflation for health care services,
housing, utilities, and groceries.
Making matters worse, the previous administration
adopted policies that weakened the Federal Government's
oversight of State administration and distribution of
Federal funds under these programs, including by
reducing commonsense verification measures, expanding
access without adequate controls, tolerating
unacceptable error rates, creating conditions in which
fraud was institutionally tolerated and therefore
flourished, and enabling individuals with substantial
means to improperly access benefits.
My Administration will use all available resources and
authorities to fight fraud, close loopholes, enforce
eligibility rules, and protect benefits for eligible
Americans, while ensuring States administering Federal
benefits programs do the same.
Sec. 2. Establishment of the Task Force. (a) There is
hereby established within the Executive Office of the
President a Task Force to Eliminate Fraud (Task Force).
(b) The Vice President of the United States shall
serve as the Chairman of the Task Force. The Chairman
of the Federal Trade Commission shall serve as Vice
Chairman of the Task Force, shall preside over the Task
Force at the direction of the Chairman or in his
absence, and shall exercise all powers of the Chairman
herein defined at his direction or in his absence. The
Chairman shall designate an Executive Director, who
shall administer and execute the day-to-day operations
of the Task Force, and who shall report to the Vice
Chairman. The Assistant to the President for Homeland
Security shall serve as the Senior Advisor to the Task
Force.
(c) In addition to the Chairman, the Vice Chairman,
and the Senior Advisor, the Task Force shall include
appropriate representatives from the following
executive departments and agencies (agencies), or
components:
(i) the Department of the Treasury;
(ii) the Department of Justice;
(iii) the Department of Agriculture;
(iv) the Department of Labor;
(v) the Department of Health and Human Services;
(vi) the Department of Housing and Urban Development;
(vii) the Department of Education;
(viii) the Department of Veterans Affairs;
(ix) the Department of Homeland Security;
(x) the Small Business Administration;
(xi) the Office of Management and Budget; and
(xii) other agencies, inspectors general, or components within the
Executive Office of the President, as determined by the Chairman.
(d) The Chairman or the Vice Chairman shall convene
regular meetings of the Task Force, determine its
agenda, and direct its work, consistent with this
order. The Executive Director shall assist in the
performance
[[Page 13487]]
of these duties. The Chairman may designate any member
of the Task Force to preside over meetings of the Task
Force in the absence of the Vice Chairman.
(e) The Task Force shall coordinate with the
Homeland Security Council on any matters related to law
enforcement, public safety, national security,
transnational crime, and organized criminal activity.
Sec. 3. Operation and Priorities of the Task Force. (a)
The Task Force shall, on behalf of the President,
coordinate and accelerate a comprehensive national
strategy to stop fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal
benefit programs, including programs administered
jointly with State, local, tribal, and territorial
partners. The Task Force shall advise the President
and, on behalf of the President, shall coordinate the
work of appropriate member agencies to:
(i) develop measures to improve eligibility verification processes in
Federal benefits programs and maximize enforcement of eligibility
requirements, including program-specific requirements and the Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996;
(ii) develop appropriate controls that operate before funds are obligated
or disbursed to prevent improper payments in Federal benefits programs,
including by coordinating agency action to determine when ongoing fraud or
potential fraud require proactively pausing certain types of funding until
such controls can be established;
(iii) evaluate indicators of fraud and high-risk vulnerabilities to fraud,
including major fraud trends and cross-program and large-scale schemes,
which shall include considering the current and potential use by member
agencies of third-party contractors to maximize efficacy in detecting
fraud;
(iv) promote the facilitation of information and data sharing and
coordination between State, local, tribal, and territorial governments and
the Federal Government, and benefit-providing agencies and law enforcement
agencies;
(v) disrupt and dismantle fraud networks and facilitators, including
providers, contractors, or other entities and repeat cross-program
offenders through interagency information sharing and coordination;
(vi) investigate and disrupt the mechanisms through which fraud is
committed, including any mechanisms involving facilitation of fraud by
Federal, State, local, tribal, or territorial officials;
(vii) prevent remittance transfers that involve the proceeds of Federal
benefits fraud, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law;
(viii) audit and ensure prospective compliance monitoring, including for
use in identifying fraud in Federal benefits programs; and
(ix) analyze identifying information for all providers or retailers
associated with redemption of benefits to inspect for fraud and develop a
process by which member agencies recommend policies for wide-scale
revalidations or reauthorization to deter fraudulent providers, as
appropriate and to the extent consistent with applicable law.
(b) Each agency administering Federal benefit
programs shall, consistent with applicable law, provide
to the Task Force information concerning such programs
that the Task Force deems relevant to advising the
President and coordinating efforts to uncover benefits
fraud and increase fraud-detection capability.
(c) The Task Force shall be subject to the
President's direct supervision and control. The Task
Force, through the Chairman, shall provide frequent
updates to the President regarding its work and shall
ensure that its actions are consistent with the
President's directions.
Sec. 4. Improved Controls and Fraud-Prevention
Measures. (a) Each agency administering Federal benefit
programs represented on the Task Force shall identify
the agency's benefit transactions and processes that
are most susceptible to fraud schemes, which may
include new enrollments, redeterminations, provider
enrollments, eligibility self-attestation procedures,
changes
[[Page 13488]]
to payment destinations or payees, or transactions
involving third party intermediaries. Within 30 days of
the date of this order, each such agency shall submit
to the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Task Force
descriptions of such transactions and processes and
suggested measures to prevent such fraud.
(b) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the
Task Force shall coordinate member agency efforts to
adopt, as appropriate, minimum anti-fraud requirements
for transactions and processes identified under
subsection (a) of this section to prevent fraud and
loopholes that allow for systemic abuse and
exploitation. If such transactions and processes
involving Federal funding are administered by a State,
local, territorial, or tribal jurisdiction, then the
Task Force and appropriate member agencies shall
address how such jurisdictions can demonstrate
implementation of the anti-fraud requirements. The Task
Force and its member agencies also shall examine and
recommend, as appropriate, any ways that Federal funds
may be withheld from jurisdictions that do not have
adequate anti-fraud requirements. Specifically, such
anti-fraud requirements may include:
(i) screening, proof of identity, and eligibility verification;
(ii) pre-payment integrity and risk controls, including affirmative
documentation requirements concerning services provided;
(iii) information- and data-sharing processes, updated criteria, minimum
integrity checks, cross-program risk indicators, and coordinated recovery
and enforcement pathways to prevent immigration sponsor and beneficiary and
household-related related fraud, abuse, or improper usage;
(iv) appropriate use of providers, vendors, contractors, nonprofit
organizations, intermediaries, and service organizations; and
(v) audit and remedial measures, including suspension, termination,
repayment, exclusion, and debarment actions, as appropriate.
(c) Within 90 days of the date of this order, each
member of the Task Force shall submit to the Chairman
and the Vice Chairman of the Task Force a measurable
implementation plan concerning the measures identified
or developed under this order.
Sec. 5. Administration. The heads of other agencies
shall, upon the request of the Chairman or the Vice
Chairman, provide administrative and technical support,
or information required by the Task Force to carry out
its functions.
Sec. 6. Maximizing Taxpayer Pursuit of Fraud Involving
Taxpayer Dollars. The Attorney General shall:
(a) take appropriate action to promote the
meritorious pursuit by private persons of civil actions
under 31 U.S.C. 3730 concerning fraud within Federal
benefit programs; and
(b) ensure prompt review of such actions, including
within the 60-day period contemplated by 31 U.S.C.
3730(a)(4) to the maximum extent practicable.
Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
[[Page 13489]]
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
(d) The costs for publication of this order shall
be borne by the Department of the Treasury.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 16, 2026.
[FR Doc. 2026-05497
Filed 3-18-26; 11:15 am]
Billing code 4810-25-P