HB7312, titled the No More SCAMS Act, would require the President to establish a Federal Fraud Interagency Task Force within 90 days of enactment. The task force would be charged with investigating fraud involving federal dollars, improving coordination among federal agencies, and recovering misused funds. It would also be expected to work with state and local law enforcement, develop best practices and training to prevent and detect fraud, and make better use of existing federal anti-fraud resources.
The bill sets out a structure for the task force, including a director with at least 10 years of fraud investigation or federal law enforcement experience and members drawn from covered federal agencies with expertise in financial management, grants, procurement, auditing, compliance, forensic accounting, payment integrity, and fraud risk management. It also requires annual reporting to Congress and the President on investigations, referrals for prosecution, funds recovered, agency anti-fraud activities, fraud trends, and recommendations for improvement, along with annual GAO audits of the task force’s operations and spending.
If enacted, the bill would create a new federal interagency body and formalize a government-wide anti-fraud coordination framework. It would affect a broad set of federal departments and agencies, including Treasury, Justice, Defense, HHS, HUD, Education, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and others designated by the President. The bill would not directly amend existing program statutes, but it would add new oversight, reporting, and coordination requirements that could influence how agencies detect, investigate, and respond to fraud in federal spending, grants, procurement, and payment systems.
The available record shows no committee transcript and no votes, so there is no documented floor or committee debate to gauge support or opposition. Based on the bill’s text and title, the measure appears to be framed as a government accountability and anti-waste initiative, which typically draws bipartisan interest. The overall tone of the proposal is preventive and enforcement-oriented, emphasizing coordination, recovery of funds, and oversight rather than new spending programs.
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. Potential areas of debate, based on the bill’s structure, could include whether a new task force duplicates existing inspector general, law enforcement, or agency anti-fraud efforts; the administrative cost of creating and staffing the task force; and the scope of presidential discretion to designate additional covered agencies. Another possible issue is how much authority the task force would have in practice versus its role as a coordinating and reporting body.