Pres. Joe Biden wants more pandemic relief money, but Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., has joined other GOP colleagues in asking how the first $6 trillion was spent.
Biden is seeking another $30 billion for COVID-19 relief but senators are weary of the need, especially considering the lack of accountability for the trillions allocated during the past two years.
The bulk of that money was given to states for various pandemic services and Capito said during a virtual press conference from her Washington office Thursday states should have accountability as well, but it is still federal money.
“The administration should tell us where this money has gone and how much more is to go out,” she said. “They are asking for billions more … for more pandemic relief and assistance on vaccines. We have already given billions and billions in those areas.”
Capito also questioned why the administration took billions of dollars out of Health and Human Services and directed it to the southern border to spend on families coming across the border illegally.
“I think we need to hear from them on that,” she said.
Capito on Thursday joined 35 of her GOP colleagues, led by Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, in sending a letter to Biden asking for answers on accountability.
The letter comes on the heels of a recent article in the Washington Post that said the money has been hard to track and includes considerable fraud.
“There is no question that the immense fraud that took place at the crush of the pandemic in 2020, particularly in small-business loans and unemployment insurance, is the largest oversight challenge the Biden administration inherited,” Gene Sperling, the president’s chief coordinator for stimulus spending, said in the article, stressing that the administration is taking “significant steps to strengthen anti-fraud controls.”
“Before we would consider supporting an additional $30 billion for COVID-19 relief, Congress must receive a full accounting of how the government has already spent the first $6 trillion,” the senators said in the letter.
The senators also want to know specifically why more money is needed.
“While we have supported historic, bipartisan measures in the United States Senate to provide unprecedented investments in vaccines, therapeutics, and testing, it is not yet clear why additional funding is needed,” the letter said.
Gov. Jim Justice said in December 2021 WorkForce West Virginia paid out more than $80 million in fraudulent unemployment claims in 2020, when federal pandemic money was flowing into the state helping with those benefits.
As a result of that, a bill was passed by the state Senate last month to create an Unemployment Compensation Insurance Fraud Unit and that bill is now in a House committee.