By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday launching a national task force led by Vice President JD Vance aimed at proving Trump’s claims that federal funds intended for social-welfare programs are being stolen in some states.
Trump had previously tasked Vance with leading administration efforts to investigate fraud in Minnesota. The order signed on Monday designated that the task force look into fraud allegations across the country. Trump has repeatedly invoked a scandal that dates back to 2020 in Minnesota in which 47 people were accused of defrauding $250 million from a state-run, federally funded child nutrition program.
The controversy prompted Trump earlier this year to send in 2,000 federal immigration officers to crack down on migrants. He shifted tactics to a less aggressive approach after federal officers shot to death two people protesting his policies.
Trump specifically singled out California during remarks on Monday and said, without providing evidence, that fraud allegations were higher in Democratic-led states than in Republican-led states.
Vance, appearing with Trump in the Oval Office, said the order would force the federal government to “stop the fraud of the American taxpayer and make sure that the benefits that ought by right go to American citizens, go to American citizens, and not to fraudsters.”
A copy of the executive order released by the White House said members of the task force are to come up with a plan in 90 days to implement anti-fraud measures.
A White House fact sheet describing the order mentioned California, Illinois, New York, Maine and Colorado as U.S. states with “insufficient” fraud oversight.
Vance last month criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who was Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024, over his efforts to combat fraud and froze more than a quarter of a billion dollars of Medicaid funding for the state.
Walz has slammed the Trump administration for what he called “a campaign of retribution.”
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Katharine Jackson and Nandita Bose; writing by Steve Holland and Susan Heavey; editing by David Ljunggren, Caitlin Webber and Lincoln Feast.)
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