Criminals Don’t Stop at State Lines
Criminals don’t stop at state lines, and neither should the people working to protect your money. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been the case.
Earlier this year, I joined the U.S. Department of Justice in signing a first-of-its-kind data-sharing agreement designed to help agencies like the Mississippi Treasury exchange information about potential fraud across state lines. I was also invited to participate in Vice President J.D. Vance’s national anti-fraud efforts, giving Mississippi a seat at the table as officials work to build stronger safeguards for taxpayer dollars.
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives took another step in that direction.
With the support of Mississippi Congressmen Trent Kelly, Michael Guest, and Mike Ezell, the House passed the PROOF Act, legislation built around a simple principle: Give investigators the information they need to connect the dots on fraud.
The legislation, which unfortunately did not earn the support of Congressman Bennie Thompson, would strengthen information sharing between state agencies and federal law enforcement. This would help investigators uncover fraud in federally funded programs, including Medicaid, unemployment benefits, disaster assistance, and others.
Of course, cracking down on fraud goes well beyond the basic responsibility of being a good steward of your money. Every dollar stolen through fraud is a dollar that can’t go toward roads, schools, law enforcement, health care, or the vulnerable families these programs were created to help.
It is critical that we find fraud when it happens, prosecute those responsible, and recover stolen funds whenever possible. But my goal is even bigger: I want to stop fraud before it happens.
Sharing information across state lines can help us do that faster. If someone attempts to defraud a government program in Louisiana, there is no reason Mississippi should have to wait until that same person shows up at our doorstep to learn about it.
Fraudsters have become increasingly sophisticated. They exploit gaps between agencies, programs, and states. When government agencies are unable to share information, those gaps can become hiding places for criminals.
At the Mississippi Treasury, we have made fighting fraud a priority. We modernized our systems, strengthened verification procedures, and empowered our staff to think critically when processing claims. Mississippi also became the first state in the nation to implement citizenship verification within that program.
Those safeguards matter. Earlier this year, our team caught an attempted fraudulent claim worth nearly $800,000. Had we simply processed the paperwork and sent the money out the door, recovering those dollars would have been far more difficult. That is why I believe the best fraud investigations stop the check from ever being written.
Mississippi is doing its part. The PROOF Act gives states and federal investigators another tool to do the same nationwide. After all, criminals don’t stop at state lines. Neither should our defense of taxpayer dollars.
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