Vice President JD Vance will convene the first meeting of the new White House anti-fraud task force on Friday, an administration official told NBC News.
The plan, which President Donald Trump announced last month in his State of the Union address, aims to reduce government spending by targeting the misuse of federal funds.
Vance will be joined at the meeting by Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who will be the group’s vice chairman, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who will be a senior adviser, the official said. Other Cabinet secretaries and senior administration officials are expected to attend the meeting, which will be held on the grounds of the White House.
“The task force is an important part of the Trump Administration’s effort to restore America’s image as a more trustworthy society,” Vance said in a statement. “Its work has become passionate about ending rampant waste, fraud and abuse across the country and finding fraudsters who are robbing hard-working Americans.”
Ferguson, in a statement shared with NBC News, said he looks forward to “working with the Vice President to deliver results for the American people and hold perpetrators accountable.”
Trump signed an executive order creating the task force earlier this month. The president, Vance and others targeted Minnesota, with its Democratic governor and attorney general, while vowing to focus on other states as the party’s work continues.
Minnesota is the subject of an ongoing fraud investigation involving child care centers and alleged misappropriation of funds that has become a rallying point for Republicans. After Trump’s State of the Union address last month, Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz announced the suspension of Medicaid reimbursements in Minnesota.
“I hope JD will do a good job,” Trump said Thursday at a Cabinet meeting. “You’re in charge now with a very capable person, but I think it’s easy. So they say $19 billion … is short – $19 billion. You know, we’re going to solve part of the fraud problem in this country.
A memo sent to group members by Vance and Ferguson this week outlined several points they intend to emphasize, including prosecution. Vance is involved in the creation of an assistant US attorney general position focused on fraud.
“First, the government must prosecute fraudsters and recover as much ill-gotten gains as possible,” Vance and Ferguson wrote. “So, secondly, along with prosecution, the government must prevent fraud from occurring before it is paid.”
The memo added that “areas of high concern are programs that pay large sums of money with low confidence or limited information about the final recipients and the use of those funds.” Among the specific programs mentioned: Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance and SNAP, the Nutrition Assistance Program.
