Trump anti-fraud taskforce to focus on US federal benefit programmes
A taskforce to eliminate fraud has been created by the White House to spearhead efforts to combat what it describes as “widespread” fraud in US federal benefit programmes.
Formally established via an executive order signed by president Donald Trump, the taskforce will be chaired by vice-president JD Vance. Federal Trade Commission chairman Andrew Ferguson has been named vice-chair, while assistant to the president for homeland security Stephen Miller – a lead figure in the promotion of Trump’s immigration agenda – is senior advisor.
The taskforce will “coordinate measures to improve eligibility verification, implement pre-payment controls, detect high-risk fraud trends, and disrupt and dismantle fraud networks and the mechanisms through which fraud is committed”, the White House stated.
It will also “coordinate development of minimum anti-fraud requirements to prevent exploitation of taxpayer-funded benefits, including proof of identity and documentation requirements, risk controls, and audit and remedial actions, while each member agency works to develop a measurable implementation plan”.
“President Trump is restoring the integrity of taxpayer-funded safety-net programmes that have been exploited by illegal aliens, criminals, foreign gangs, bureaucrats and non-governmental organisations,” stated a White House fact sheet released alongside the text of the executive order on 16 March. Trump also spoke of a “war on fraud”, led by Vance, in his State of the Union speech on 24 February.
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‘Systemic vulnerabilities’
The order directs the taskforce – which will be run day to day by a yet-to-be-announced executive director – to “coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to stop fraud, waste, and abuse across federal benefit programmes, including housing, food, medical care, and cash assistance administered with state and local partners, in order to protect these benefits for eligible Americans”.
States administer many of these benefit programmes funded by the federal government, “yet some have embraced policies that avoid individual eligibility validation, permit self-certification, and expand eligibility far beyond Congressional intent, while refusing to even share enrollee data necessary for reasonable federal oversight – creating systemic vulnerabilities that enable fraud at massive scale,” the White House said.
The fact sheet explicitly mentions both states and specific programmes as exemplifying why the taskforce has been established.
“In July 2025, 21 states filed a lawsuit in California seeking 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” (SNAP), it said.
Minnesota, where a high-profile ongoing federal investigation into benefits fraud is ongoing, is also mentioned – as it was in Trump’s State of the Union speech. “Scams like Feeding Our Future stole nearly US$250m intended for needy children […] all while state officials ignored or failed to detect the fraud,” the White House stated.
“There is strong reason to believe similar vulnerabilities exist in California, Illinois, New York, Maine, and Colorado, where insufficient safeguards and weak oversight increase the risk of large-scale fraud,” it added.
Read more: Trump and DOGE demand ‘centralised tech systems’ to ‘record every payment’
30, 60 and 90 day deadlines
The taskforce will include representatives from the following executive departments and agencies: the Treasury, Department of Justice; Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, Small Business Administration; and the Office of Management and Budget; as well as “other agencies, inspectors general, or components within the Executive Office of the President, as determined by the chairman”.
Relevant cabinet secretaries and heads of government agencies will serve as taskforce members.
The taskforce will “evaluate indicators of fraud and high-risk vulnerabilities to fraud, including major fraud trends and cross-programme and large-scale schemes, which shall include considering the current and potential use by member agencies of third-party contractors to maximise efficacy in detecting fraud,” the White House explained.
It will also “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”.
Deadlines of 30, 60 and 90 days are set for actions, starting with each agency administering federal benefit programmes represented on the taskforce needing to identify their benefit transactions and processes “most susceptible to fraud schemes”; and submit to Vance and Ferguson “descriptions of such transactions and processes and suggested measures to prevent such fraud”.
Within 60 days the taskforce and its member agencies “shall examine and recommend, as appropriate, any ways that federal funds may be withheld from jurisdictions that do not have adequate anti-fraud requirements”; and, within 90 days, each taskforce member needs to submit a measurable implementation plan.
Ongoing anti-fraud objective
The Establishing the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud executive order was signed just under 12 months since Trump signed executive orders to “modernise how the government handles money” and centralise a “fragmented” federal disbursements bureaucracy to tackle fraud.
The first executive order mandated that, with effect from 30 September 2025, the federal government “will cease issuing paper checks for all disbursements, including intragovernmental payments, benefits, vendor payments and tax refunds”.
Trump signed the order – titled ‘Modernizing Payments To And From America’s Bank Account’ – to force a “switch from old-fashioned paper-based payments to fast, secure electronic payments” across the US federal public service.
“It’s basically modernisation of equipment and methods… it’s something that should have been done 25, 30 years ago,” Trump remarked as he signed the order.
The second executive order – titled ‘Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste and Abuse’ and signed the same day (25 March 2025) – set out numerous measures that aim to reduce fraud against the government. It included an intention to reduce “as appropriate” Non-Treasury Disbursing Offices (NTDOs), with the Treasury asked to develop a plan to centralise and manage payments.
The fact-sheet released alongside the new executive order also mentions an executive order signed in February 2025 “to ensure taxpayer resources are not used to incentivise or support illegal immigration” (‘Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders’); a presidential memorandum in April 2025 aimed at stopping illegal aliens and other ineligible people from obtaining Social Security Act benefits; and an announcement, in January this year, of a new Department of Justice division dedicated to national fraud enforcement.
This story was originally posted on Global Government Finance: Trump anti-fraud taskforce to focus on US federal benefit programmes
About Ian Hall
Ian is Global Government Finance editor. He has formerly held roles including UK director of Euractiv (2011-2018), editor of Public Affairs News (2007-2011) and news editor of PR Week (2000-2007). He was shortlisted for ‘Editor of the Year’ at the British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) Awards in 2010. He began his career in the Balkans at English-language weekly the Sofia Echo (Bulgaria: 1998-1999).
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