Vance’s inaugural meeting of the anti-fraud task force comes as President Donald Trump’s administration tries to underscore tougher enforcement and oversight of potential misuse in federal benefit programs. Speaking before the task force’s closed-door meeting in Washington on Friday, Vance framed the effort as addressing both fraud and the loss of services that people rely on.
Vance said the federal government, “for decades, had not taken the issue of fraud seriously,” and he argued that the problem requires what he called “a whole-government approach.” He described the stakes in terms that extended beyond money, saying, “This is not just the theft of the American people’s money,” and adding that “It is also the theft of critical services that the American people rely on.”
Trump, a Republican, has made cracking down on fraud a central part of the administration’s domestic agenda, according to the Associated Press account. The AP report said the push has gained political traction as voters have expressed concern about affordability ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Vance also pointed to allegations involving day care centers in Minneapolis that have been described as connected to Somali residents. He cited those Minneapolis allegations during Friday’s remarks, and the AP report said they came amid a broader immigration crackdown in the Midwestern city that resulted in widespread protests.
The task force also intersects with federal-state disputes over benefit oversight. The AP report said Vance previously announced a temporary halt of some Medicaid funding for Minnesota after federal officials said the state needed to take actions they believed would address their concerns. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, responded by calling it a “campaign of retribution” and saying the Trump administration was “weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota.”
The anti-fraud task force is described as one of the most visible assignments Vance has received so far. The AP report said Vance is seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, and that the task force is the latest role that keeps him near high-level policy decisions.
According to the AP report, the task force will include about half the president’s Cabinet, along with the leader of a new Justice Department division focused on prosecuting fraud and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson. Vance and the task force are set to meet regularly to look at rooting out potential fraud and waste in federal benefit programs, the report said.
Ferguson, who the AP described as vice chair of the task force, cast benefit fraud as a dire crisis. The Associated Press report quoted him saying it “shreds the social trust on which these programs and our entire nation depend,” and also quoted Ferguson saying, “This fraud crisis is thus existential,” adding, “If we fail to address it, the fabric of our nation will swiftly unravel.”
The AP report said Colin McDonald, a top aide to the Justice Department’s second in command, joined the task force. It also said McDonald was recently confirmed as the assistant attorney general overseeing the department’s new division focused on prosecuting fraud.
The Justice Department has long prosecuted fraud nationally through its Criminal Division, the AP report said, but the Trump administration argues that a new division is needed to crack down on what it describes as rampant fraud. The AP report also cited the Justice Department’s pandemic-era “Feeding Our Future” case under the Biden administration, saying it sought $300 million and accused dozens of defendants, most of whom are described as Somali descent, of exploiting a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.
The AP report further said investigations tied to that matter expanded and that a lead prosecutor estimated that half or more of roughly $18 billion in federal funds supporting 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. The AP report added that the prosecutor who had been leading the investigation resigned from the Justice Department amid frustration with the department’s response to fatal shootings of civilians by federal agents in Minneapolis.