Rep. James Comer (R-KY) stated that in the new Congress, the House Oversight Committee will focus on waste, fraud, and abuse.
Comer told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that the GOP-led committee will look into the billions of dollars in COVID-related spending, accusing Dems of exploiting it to focus on left-wing social concerns.
“We’re going to look into 40 to 50 different things,” Comer promised. “We have the capability; the committee will have 25 members, and the workforce will number close to 70… And, let’s face it, the Dems on the House Oversight Committee haven’t investigated anything in this administration in the last two years. They examined the Washington Commanders football team, and we had multiple hearings on social matters that have nothing to do with the Oversight Committee, such as abortion.”
“We believe that hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars, if not trillions, of dollars have been squandered in the name of COVID over the last three years—spanning two administrations,” Comer stated.
“We want to hold hearings on it. We want to try to figure out what happened with the fraudulent unemployment insurance money, the fraudulent PPP loan money, some of the money that is being spent for local and state governments in the COVID stimulus funds… these are going to be priorities for us as a committee,” he added.
Bloomberg’s editorial board reported in March that the US Secret Service assessed that $100 billion in COVID relief payments had been released owing to fraud, unethical transactions, or to deceased persons. Another Department of Labor analysis discovered that more than $87 billion in COVID-related unemployment compensation were unlawfully paid. The Small Business Administration disbursed about $6 billion to beneficiaries accused of fraud. The IRS also allegedly sent more than 2 million stimulus checks totaling more than $3.5 billion to deceased individuals.
Earlier this week, Comer blasted high-profile Democrats for tainting congressional investigations and pledged reform when Republicans take control.
“I don’t feel congressional investigations really have a lot of credibility today,” Comer said in an interview with Punchbowl News. “That’s Adam Schiff’s fault. However, both parties are to responsible for previous investigations. But I’m determined to alter that.”
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