OPINION:
Discovering a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow is the stuff of daydreams. Scoring government gelt, though, is for real, and it takes just a few computer clicks. That’s what thousands of federal employees did, lining their pockets with coronavirus relief funds meant for Americans suddenly deprived of their livelihood. The rip-off must not go unpunished.
When U.S. COVID-19 relief programs started in 2020, some federal workers saw an opportunity to double-dip: claim eligibility for unemployment and lost-wages assistance while still on the job. Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, highlighted the grift in her January “Squeal Award,” in which she says avaricious bureaucrats “falsely claimed that they lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, in order to be paid twice by taxpayers: Once for being employed and then again for pretending to be unemployed.”
While still on the payroll, some feds put in for overtime pay while collecting unemployment, Ms. Ernst wrote, and had the nerve to apply for the jobless benefits from their work computers. Among federal units caught up in the scandal are the Department of Homeland Security, IRS, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Secret Service, Postal Service and Amtrak.
In the case of DHS, a 2022 audit found 2,393 “ineligible or potentially ineligible” claims linked to department employees’ identities. Able to self-certify their eligibility, the workers collected a total payout of $8.8 million. Bank robber Willie Sutton might not have needed to explain his unsavory occupation with “because that’s where the money is” if he had only landed a job with Uncle Sam.
Americans might be tempted to extend some mitigating compassion to federal workers who daily suffer the soul-crushing schlep to D.C. After all, an argument could be made that navigating the Beltway should entitle commuters to hazardous duty pay. But wait: These feds were copping extra pay while working from the comfort of home.
In fact, according to Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, many D.C. workers have yet to return to the office. “Do you realize that 47% of the federal employees are still not in for work?” Mr. McCarthy recently commented on Fox Business.
Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican, who estimates that total COVID-19 relief fraud could reach $766 billion, has introduced the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems — or “SHOW UP” — Act, which would require most federal teleworkers to return to the office. Perhaps not coincidentally, President Biden has finally agreed to terminate the federal coronavirus emergency on May 11.
It is little wonder that a recent Gallup Poll found that Americans consider “government/poor leadership” as “the most important problem facing this country today.” Named foremost by 21% of respondents, the governance issue ranked more pressing than inflation, at 15%, and immigration, at 11%.
In perspective, the bureaucratic grifters represent but a sliver of the nation’s 4.4 million federal employees. Surely most have red, white and blue tattooed on their hearts and would rather starve than steal from their fellow Americans. Those who double-dipped, though, have proved themselves unworthy of civil service. They deserve the heave-ho.
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