As the Trump administration pushes the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said this week that the agency will return more than $1 billion in unused COVID-era funds to U.S. taxpayers.
The Labor Department stated in a news release that it is currently taking “action” in order “to recover the remaining $2.9 billion,” but that $1.4 billion of unspent COVID funding will soon be “returned to taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Treasury’s General Fund.” However, it did not specify a date for either.
“The roughly $4.3 billion was intended for states to use for temporary unemployment insurance during the pandemic,” the press release states. “Instead, several states continued spending millions of dollars despite no longer meeting necessary requirements, which was uncovered in a 2023 audit conducted by the department’s Office of Inspector General.”
In the press release, Chavez-DeRemer clarified that the program is especially designed to offer expanded unemployment insurance to Americans who were unable to work during the pandemic and that the financing came from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in March 2020.
The 2023 audit “found four states were allowed to access the funding ‘despite not meeting program requirements,’ totaling over $100 million in spending,” according to the department, which stated that the program was discontinued in 2021.
“There’s no reason leftover COVID unemployment funds should still be collecting dust,” DeRemer told Fox News. “I promised to look out for Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars, and we are delivering at the Department of Labor.”
“Any money still sitting around for pandemic-era unemployment funds is a clear misuse of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars,” Chavez-DeRemer said in the press release, noting that they are “rooting out waste to ensure American Workers always come First.”
Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling made a statement as well.
Hellbound and Down 