The Leader’s Floor Lookout: Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Keeping the Government Open for Americans Without Wasteful Spending

For too long, responsible spending has been a foreign concept to Washington, sticking the American people with a national debt that now exceeds $36 trillion. The largest increase of the national debt under a presidential administration took place under President Biden, raising the debt by $8.5 trillion, despite facing no recessions and the economy having reopened.

House Republicans are on a mission to cut wasteful Washington spending, reduce our out of control debt, and responsibly fund the federal government as we fight to get America’s financial house in order.

In order to ensure the government stays open and accessible to Americans while we fight to save our economy from more reckless spending, House Republicans are bringing forward a clean continuing resolution to extend government funding through September 30, 2025.

Our funding plan would make sure necessary programs like those for our veterans and healthcare are taken care of, without bloated Democrat spending. It includes an additional $6 billion for veterans’ healthcare and housing, and increases defense spending to keep Americans safe and cared for. Additionally, the legislation funds authorized pay increases for junior enlisted military personnel and the WIC program. Meanwhile, our plan cuts non defense spending and ensures taxpayer dollars are used responsibly.

It’s vital that Washington changes its trajectory and starts reining in spending to reduce the debt, but also that the government remains open to serve the American people – this legislation would accomplish both.

H.R. 1968, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, introduced by Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, extends government funding through September 30, 2025, keeping the government open and serving the American people while we fight to reduce wasteful government spending and lower our debt.

This shouldn’t be a partisan vote – one of the most important duties of Congress is to keep the government funded and working for Americans. Will Democrats vote with us to avert a government shutdown, or will they put partisan politics before the wellbeing of the People?

Holding Pandemic Unemployment Fraudsters Accountable and Recovering Stolen Funds

In March 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, creating several federally-funded unemployment insurance (UI) programs to temporarily provide expanded unemployment benefits in response to the coronavirus pandemic. These programs include Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation (MEUC), and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC).

In less than two years, the government spending through these temporary UI programs added up to $675 billion – a huge expense. One of the reasons these programs spent so much was the generous weekly $600 benefits through FPUC in addition to state benefits, on average $380 per week. Additionally, weak verification systems at the state level and self-certification for PUA benefits created an easy target for fraudsters and international criminal organizations to steal big taxpayer bucks.

By estimate, $100 billion to $135 billion of these pandemic era unemployment funds were stolen by fraudsters. Now, around five years later, only $5 billion of these stolen funds (roughly four percent) have been recovered, according to the Department of Labor. 

Currently, the statute of limitations for fraud under these unemployment programs is five years, with the deadline falling on March 27, 2025. If the statute of limitations is not extended, after March 27, we will no longer be able to prosecute these crimes, whether new cases or ongoing ones, or recover any more of the stolen funds. 

We can’t allow these criminals to walk away with stolen taxpayer funds and no repercussions. House Republicans are bringing legislation to ensure these fraudsters are held accountable to the American taxpayer.