A recently introduced bipartisan bill (S-4036) would establish a new Government Spending Oversight Committee. Image: ungvar/Shutterstock.com
An oversight body created to oversee pandemic-related spending by federal agencies may be continued beyond their currently scheduled expiration dates, as well as expanded to other areas, to take advantage of the capabilities that those bodies developed, says a report for Congress.
The Congressional Research Service report focused on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee of agency IG offices, and especially on its Pandemic Accountability Center for Excellence, whose data analytics capabilities have been “particularly useful for identifying fraud and other improper payments.”
The committee and that center currently are to expire September 30, 2025. It noted that a recently introduced bipartisan bill (S-4036) would establish a new Government Spending Oversight Committee to replace it, tasked with preventing and detecting waste, fraud, and abuse and mitigating risks that cross agency boundaries in general.
In addition to pandemic programs, its jurisdiction would include oversight of other laws enacted in recent years such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as longstanding programs where pandemic spending audits have pointed to deeper problems, such as unemployment compensation and SBA loans.“As Congress is interested in expanding the PRAC model to non-pandemic spending, it might also consider how to evaluate the effectiveness of this model in other policy areas. The federal pandemic response was broad, technically complex, and performed under significant time pressure.
Congress may focus its attention and resources on other federal programs and spending that are likely to benefit the most from this added capacity when making decisions on whether to apply it to other programs,” it said.
Other options, it said, include extending the current PRAC beyond its sunset date and expand its jurisdiction; or move its data analytics systems to another agency or office.
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