Vice President JD Vance announces the anti-fraud task force has recovered $160 billion in fraudulent funds. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita provides his analysis during 'America's Newsroom.'

Florida Republican Sen. Ashley Moody has spent the last few months introducing and co-sponsoring a slate of legislation aimed at helping the Trump administration root out billions of dollars in fraud and theft of federal funds, and it is a welcome chance for the upper body to actually act.

Vice President JD Vance is spearheading the White House effort, targeting everything from Medicare fraud in Minnesota to fake hospice centers in Los Angeles, and the scale of the money lost, billions and billions of dollars, is staggering.

UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 21: Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., leaves the Senate floor after a vote in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, October 21, 2025.  (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In March, Moody, who was Florida's attorney general when she was appointed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis to finish the term of Marco Rubio after he left to serve as secretary of state, introduced the Stop Fraud in Medicaid Act. That law would give Medicaid Fraud Control Units the ability to expand investigations to people receiving fraudulent claims, not just those handing them out. She also introduced the Punishing Health Care Fraudsters Act, which would increase fines and penalties.

If that wasn’t enough, Moody has introduced the No Aid For Ghost Students Act, which targets a kind of grift we have heard less about, in which fraudsters submit fake or stolen identities to receive federal student aid benefits. Like Indians butchering a deer, these thieves use every part of the federal budget.

GOP SENATOR LAUNCHES EFFORT TO CLOSE MEDICAID LOOPHOLE ALLOWING FRAUDSTERS TO RAKE IN MILLIONS

I asked Moody why she chose to focus so much of her energy on the issue of fraud.

"I’ve spent most of my career tackling fraud one way or another," she said. "As a prosecutor, judge, and as Florida’s attorney general, it was part of the job."

GOP leadership in the Senate would be wise to push Moody’s anti-fraud bills not just to the floor, but to the fore of the national conversation. Voters have been expressing anger at incumbent Republican senators for not getting things done; helping Vance fight fraud would help to soothe them.

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is facing backlash over a viral video defending Somalis amid a massive fraud scandal. (Getty)

"VP Vance, our whole government, and state AGs need every tool available to go after scammers and fraudsters, and I’ve got the toolbox ready with a slew of legislative proposals to enhance prosecutorial efforts," Moody said. "Let’s get it done."

So far, Vance has correctly laid out the two main victims of federal fraud: first, the taxpayer who is stolen from, and second, the people who really do need these services. But there is another argument that Republicans should be making.

The vast scale of this fraud, with some estimates as high as hundreds of billions of dollars, is such that not only would stopping it be justice served to criminals, it would also be a massive windfall for federal coffers.

WALZ’S MINNESOTA MESS COULD SPARK THE TOUGHEST FRAUD REFORMS IN DECADES

Maybe the Senate can succeed in some of the areas where the Trump administration’s Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency ran into roadblocks. After all, it is the Senate that passes the funding. Its members should also be the ones protecting it.

For conservative voters across the country who don’t want to pay for foreign-born fraudsters, Congress is the only hope we have, because once those federal dollars flow out the door to blue states and cities, it is Katie bar the door on ridiculous spending and fraud.

We have seen now in state after state what happens when the federal government punts its responsibility to protect federal dollars from fraud. Blue state governments just close their eyes and let it happen.

MINNESOTA'S $70 MILLION FRAUD EXPOSES HOW DEMOCRATS BUILT A SYSTEM DESIGNED TO BE ROBBED

Note that not a single Democratic state attorney general attended Vance’s meeting to discuss fighting fraud this week, just as anti-fraud hearings in Congress are often skipped by every Democratic member.

The biggest problem facing Republicans in the Senate right now, owing to the unwillingness of Majority Leader John Thune to attempt to nuke the 60-vote threshold of the filibuster, is that they are seen as getting nothing done. These bills are a chance to change that.

Quality Learning Center in Minnesota was found at the center of an alleged childcare fraud scandal in the state. (Madelin Fuerste / Fox News Channel)

Thune operates by pinning bad votes on the Democrats, a very last-century tactic. But it's what he does, and he hopes that the Save America Act is so popular that Democrats refusal to get on board will hurt them in November.

GOP TRIGGERS MARATHON SENATE FIGHT TO EXPOSE DEMS' OPPOSITION TO TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL

The problem is that the Save America Act is something voters think about, while the massive fraud being committed, often by foreigners, is one that American voters feel deep in their gut.

It is one thing for Democrats to say during this election season that the Save America Act had this or that provision they didn’t like. It is quite another to say, "Let’s not be too hard on the Somali fraudsters."

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Since Trump took office for his second go-round, almost all of the conservative wins have been his and his alone: the border, cleaning up DC, Venezuela, etc. Only the Big Beautiful Bill really involved Congress. But that can change.

It is time for Senate Republicans to join Vance in his fight against fraud, and Moody’s bills are a way to start doing that, right now.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAVID MARCUS

David Marcus is a columnist living in West Virginia and the author of "Charade: The COVID Lies That Crushed A Nation."

Get the recap of top opinion commentary and original content throughout the week.

By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News 
        Privacy Policy
       and 
        Terms of Use
      , and
      agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
      opt-out at any time.

Subscribed

You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!