Good morning folks - 

Millions of Americans lost their paycheck during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they found themselves jobless and unsure how they would provide for their family. 

While Iowa business owners and working families faced economic uncertainty, federal employees were fortunate to have the reliability of a government paycheck.

Despite this reassurance, tens of thousands of federal employees applied for and received financial aid that was intended for small businesses.

Thousands of active federal employees may have also falsely claimed that they lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, in order to be paid twice by taxpayers:  Once for being employed and then again for pretending to be unemployed.

Staff from numerous government agencies, including the IRS, TSA, FEMA, the U.S. Postal Service, Amtrak, and the Secret Service, have been detected receiving jobless benefits while also being on the federal government’s payroll!

Some were even paid overtime at the same time claiming to have lost wages due to the pandemic. Others were so blatant, they actually applied for jobless benefits from their work computers.

In addition to fleecing taxpayers, these unscrupulous bureaucrats have also tarnished the reputation of the other dedicated civil servants, many of whom worked long hours in essential jobs during the pandemic.

That is why I am giving my January 2023 Squeal Award to the fraudsters within the federal workforce who double dipped by being on both the government’s dole and the unemployment roll.

I am also asking the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, which coordinates the efforts to detect abuse of COVID-19 programs, to identify every federal employee who wrongfully received unemployment payments, recover the money that was ripped off, and grant each of those who took advantage of taxpayers by collecting jobless benefits their wish to be unemployed.

Squeal Award: Federal Fraudsters 

Because of this wasteful spending, I hereby present the fraudsters within the federal workforce with this month’s Squeal Award. 

Do you have an example of government waste or inefficiencies that I should take a look at? Send me an email by clicking here.

Thank you!