NATIONAL FRAUD ENFORCEMENT DIVISION ACT OF 2026

On 2026-09-16, Representative Jefferson Van Drew (D-NJ-2) delivered a floor speech titled "NATIONAL FRAUD ENFORCEMENT DIVISION ACT OF 2026" in the House.

NATIONAL FRAUD ENFORCEMENT DIVISION ACT OF 2026

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 146 (Wednesday, September 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 146 (Wednesday, September 16, 2026)] [House] [Pages H5941-H5947] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] NATIONAL FRAUD ENFORCEMENT DIVISION ACT OF 2026 Mr. VAN DREW. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1530, I call up the bill (H.R. 9576) to establish the National Fraud Enforcement Division of the Department of Justice, and ask for its immediate consideration. The Clerk read the title of the bill. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Bice). Pursuant to House Resolution 1530, an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print 119-41 is adopted and the bill, as amended, is considered read. The text of the bill, as amended, is as follows: H.R. 9576 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``National Fraud Enforcement Division Act of 2026''. SEC. 2. NATIONAL FRAUD ENFORCEMENT DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. (a) In General.--Chapter 31 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 509B the following: ``Sec. 509C. National Fraud Enforcement Division ``(a) Establishment.--There is hereby established a National Fraud Enforcement Division within the Department of Justice under the authority of the Attorney General (referred to in this section as the `Division'). ``(b) Head.--The Division shall be headed by an Assistant Attorney General appointed under section 506, and designated by the President as the Assistant Attorney General for National Fraud Enforcement. ``(c) Duties.--The Assistant Attorney General for National Fraud Enforcement shall perform such duties as the Attorney General may prescribe.''. (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 31 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item related to section 509B the following: ``509C. National Fraud Enforcement Division.''. (c) Prohibition on Political Activity.--Section 7323(b)(3) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting ``, National Fraud Enforcement Division,'' after ``Criminal Division''. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill, as amended, shall be debatable for 1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary or their respective designees. The gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Van Drew) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin) each will control 30 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey. general leave Mr. VAN DREW. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 9576. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from New Jersey? There was no objection. Mr. VAN DREW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 9576, the National Fraud Enforcement Division Act of 2026. For far too long, the Federal Government's approach to fighting fraud has been fractured, slow, ineffective, and buried under layers of unnecessary bureaucracy. For years, complex fraud investigations were treated as just another item on the lengthy to-do list of the Department of Justice's overextended Criminal Division. Because there was no single dedicated division at Main Justice waking up every single day with the sole mission of protecting the public, sophisticated syndicates operated with relative impunity, treating American taxpayers and their dollars like it was their own personal piggy bank. Madam Speaker, that era of bureaucratic neglect should be over. Earlier this year, the administration took decisive action by establishing the National Fraud Enforcement Division to centralize Federal efforts against multi-jurisdictional fraud. The results of this dedicated focus have been immediate and, I believe, undeniable. In July, the National Fraud Enforcement Division announced a series of significant fraud enforcement actions across the southeastern United States of America. The charges announced encompass 17 cases, spanning 7 States. These cases involve over $350 million in intended losses and include cases involving SNAP benefits, Small Business Administration loans, housing benefits, and tax fraud. As impressive as those results are, administrative action can be reversed easily with the stroke of a pen. That is why H.R. 9576 is so very vital. This legislation formally codifies the National Fraud Enforcement Division into statutory law, ensuring this powerful shield for the American taxpayer [[Page H5942]] becomes a permanent fixture of our justice system. By passing this bill, we ensure that the division will permanently be led by an Assistant Attorney General appointed by the President, whomever that is, and confirmed by the Senate, whomever they are. To my colleagues who are concerned about institutional neutrality, the bill explicitly subjects all division employees to the strict political prohibitions of the Hatch Act. {time} 1550 This is not a partisan initiative. Rather, it is a permanent, nonpartisan commitment to fiscal accountability and the rule of law. We must protect the integrity of our Federal programs, and we must honor our duty to the hardworking citizens of America who fund our government. By codifying this division, we guarantee that the aggressive fight against government waste, fraud, and abuse, which we hear so much about, will continue unabated, regardless of who occupies the White House and regardless of what whatever political party they are. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Finstad) for his leadership on this essential legislation, and I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 9576. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We learned just before coming down to the floor that votes have been canceled for tomorrow suddenly. No public explanation has been offered by the Speaker, but they are certainly saying in the cloakrooms that the last-minute cancellation of one of three 8-hour days we were scheduled to work this week was due to Congressman Massie's filing of a detailed and compelling impeachment resolution against Secretary Pete Hegseth. He introduced the resolution asserting that there were multiple high crimes and misdemeanors that have been committed by Secretary Hegseth, including violations of the War Powers Act, ignoring laws requiring the minimization of civilian casualties, engaging in extrajudicial killings, violating the speech rights of members of the armed services, and more. At least Republican Thomas Massie's suggestion is that they were unwilling to confront his impeachment resolution, and there was such division on that side of the aisle that they decided simply to call it quits after only 2 full days of work. This to be followed, of course, by 2 months of us being away from Washington. At least some explanation should be offered to us for why yet another day of work has been canceled. In any event, as a gesture of good faith and mercy for our colleagues, a political party whose members are fleeing the Nation's Capital like residents of South Vietnam on the roof of the embassy in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war, I will rise in tepid support of this bill simply codifying the National Fraud Enforcement Division, which the Department of Justice has already established by regulation. Of course, the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice has had a fraud section for more than 70 years now, so this is hardly some kind of great breakthrough in law enforcement or criminal justice. It is perhaps the least offensive piece of legislative flotsam and jetsam that has washed ashore in the last 48 hours of Republican chaos and retreat here in the House of Representatives. An initial version of the bill actually required the division to do something, to ``investigate, prosecute, and remedy fraud.'' They took that out. It seems our colleagues decided even that modest demand for action went too far, so it was dropped. No wonder they got cold feet. This is, alas, the most pro-fraud administration in American history. Nothing comes close. When this 34- felony-count President took office--and that is felony counts of fraud--he immediately fired and demoted 20 inspectors general who had rooted out billions of dollars in waste, corruption, fraud, and abuse. He dismantled and gutted the parts of the Federal Government most seriously engaged in investigating and prosecuting fraud: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has saved American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars from fraud; the 40-lawyer Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice, which was reduced to two lawyers; and the well-regarded Tax Division at the Department of Justice, which was completely wiped out by the administration. They have eliminated expert FBI squads, like CR-15 that handled complex corruption investigations around the country. Amazingly, President Trump halted all enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act upon taking office. They said that they were not going to enforce it anymore. As The Wall Street Journal has reported, the Department of Justice is pulling back not just on prosecuting fraud, but corporate crime of all kinds. In the first 6 months after taking office, the Trump DOJ dropped over 23,000 criminal investigations, including one in Tennessee into criminal fraud at a national hospital chain and one of the largest Medicaid managed care companies; another, an investigation into a Virginia nursing home with a documented record of fraud and patient abuse; probes of criminal fraud involving several New Jersey labor unions, including one opened 

Referenced legislation: HRES1530, HRES1530, HR9576