Executive Order 14395 — Establishing the Task Force To Eliminate Fraud (Federal Register, March 19, 2026)
Summary
Executive Order 14395 of March 16, 2026, Establishing the Task Force To Eliminate Fraud, published in the Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 53, Thursday, March 19, 2026. Section 1, Purpose and Policy, sets out the order's stated findings on fraud, waste, and abuse in federally funded benefits programs. Section 2 establishes within the Executive Office of the President a Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, with the Vice President of the United States as Chairman and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission as Vice Chairman. It lists the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice and the Small Business Administration among the agencies whose representatives the Task Force includes.
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“Executive Order 14395 — Establishing the Task Force To Eliminate Fraud (Federal Register, March 19, 2026).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/fr-executive-order-14395-2026-05497-task-force-to-eliminate-fraud-pdf-85bb6f2fb3/
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Federal Register Presidential Documents
Vol. 91, No. 53
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Title 3— Executive Order 14395 of March 16, 2026
The President Establishing the Task Force To Eliminate Fraud
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. American taxpayers fund a vast benefits
system for citizens in need that includes housing, food, medical care, cash
assistance, and more. States administer these federally funded programs,
and some States have embraced loopholes that avoid individual eligibility
validation, allow self-certification of eligibility, and expand eligibility far
beyond what the Congress intended. Worse, despite accepting Federal funds,
some States have refused to institute basic fraud controls such as providing
enrollee information to the Federal Government that would allow it to
verify eligibility. As a result, illegal aliens, criminals, foreign gangs, bureau-
crats, State and local officials, non-governmental organizations, and ineligible
providers exploit these programs—which are intended to provide a safety
net to lawfully eligible Americans—with ease. This exploitation and lack
of controls to prevent it have resulted in widespread fraud, waste, and
abuse at the expense of the American taxpayers who pay for and utilize
these programs, contributing substantially to the national debt.
Self-dealing political actors use such public benefits programs to solidify
control over their communities and our political systems. Due to lax immigra-
tion policy and immigration fraud, certain public officials admit into our
country, and provide sanctuary from Federal immigration laws to, migrant
populations who are likely to rely on means-tested, public assistance pro-
grams (welfare) and increase the political support and power of the public
officials providing the benefits. This increased support incentivizes public
officials to maximize the flow of welfare to these communities and makes
public officials who do so more powerful. Many of these public officials
then fail to police these programs—and in some cases, willfully turn a
blind eye to fraud, waste, and abuse within them—to ensure that welfare
flows to these migrants. Due to insufficient election integrity measures,
some migrants who are not eligible to vote do so anyway, with the same
public officials permitting widespread ballot harvesting schemes that com-
promise our election integrity and help these public officials remain in
power.
The staggering fraud and waste in Minnesota alone is a case in point.
Federal prosecutors in the State estimate that Medicaid fraud in recent
years could total in the billions. Nearly 9 percent of the roughly $866
million spent on food stamps in Minnesota each year is estimated to be
spent in error. The non-profit Feeding our Future engineered a scam that
stole nearly $250 million intended to feed needy children in Minnesota
by opening fake meal sites and submitting fraudulent claims for millions
of meals that were never served. One of the defendants in this scam was
also charged with submitting false claims to an autism services program
that was subject to widespread fraud. Hundreds of millions of dollars in
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Federal childcare funding to Minnesota were stolen by an organized ring
of Somali immigrants and others who used the stolen money to purchase
cars, property, and luxury travel, and sent the funds overseas. The Federal
Government is investigating allegations that some of the United States tax-
payer dollars subject to fraud in Minnesota were even funneled to one
of Africa’s most heinous terror groups. All of this was ignored or undetected
by State officials. There is also strong reason to believe that similar problems
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13486 Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 53 / Thursday, March 19, 2026 / Presidential Documents
exist in other States, including California, Illinois, New York, Maine, and
Colorado. In fact, Minnesota and 20 other States filed a lawsuit to block
the Federal Government from even conducting a basic review to determine
whether their enrollees are in fact eligible for taxpayer-funded benefits under
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Such extensive, undetected
fraud could only exist in a system that ignores it.
Fraud and mismanagement in these programs constitutes theft of the hard-
earned tax dollars from Americans paying into these programs, and of the
benefits owed to Americans who need them. The failure to ensure sufficient
Federal oversight to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse has allowed irresponsible
State politicians to increase Federal spending in their own States, which
has contributed to inflation for health care services, housing, utilities, and
groceries.
Making matters worse, the previous administration adopted policies that
weakened the Federal Government’s oversight of State administration and
distribution of Federal funds under these programs, including by reducing
commonsense verification measures, expanding access without adequate con-
trols, tolerating unacceptable error rates, creating conditions in which fraud
was institutionally tolerated and therefore flourished, and enabling individ-
uals with substantial means to improperly access benefits.
My Administration will use all available resources and authorities to fight
fraud, close loopholes, enforce eligibility rules, and protect benefits for eligi-
ble Americans, while ensuring States administering Federal benefits programs
do the same.
Sec. 2. Establishment of the Task Force. (a) There is hereby established
within the Executive Office of the President a Task Force to Eliminate
Fraud (Task Force).
(b) The Vice President of the United States shall serve as the Chairman
of the Task Force. The Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission shall
serve as Vice Chairman of the Task Force, shall preside over the Task
Force at the direction of the Chairman or in his absence, and shall exercise
all powers of the Chairman herein defined at his direction or in his absence.
The Chairman shall designate an Executive Director, who shall administer
and execute the day-to-day operations of the Task Force, and who shall
report to the Vice Chairman. The Assistant to the President for Homeland
Security shall serve as the Senior Advisor to the Task Force.
(c) In addition to the Chairman, the Vice Chairman, and the Senior Advisor,
the Task Force shall include appropriate representatives from the following
executive departments and agencies (agencies), or components:
(i) the Department of the Treasury;
(ii) the Department of Justice;
(iii) the Department of Agriculture;
(iv) the Department of Labor;
(v) the Department of Health and Human Services;
(vi) the Department of Housing and Urban Development;
(vii) the Department of Education;
(viii) the Department of Veterans Affairs;
(ix) the Department of Homeland Security;
(x) the Small Business Administration;
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(xi) the Office of Management and Budget; and
(xii) other agencies, inspectors general, or components within the Executive
Office of the President, as determined by the Chairman.
(d) The Chairman or the Vice Chairman shall convene regular meetings
of the Task Force, determine its agenda, and direct its work, consistent
with this order. The Executive Director shall assist in the performance
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Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 53 / Thursday, March 19, 2026 / Presidential Documents 13487
of these duties. The Chairman may designate any member of the Task
Force to preside over meetings of the Task Force in the absence of the
Vice Chairman.
(e) The Task Force shall coordinate with the Homeland Security Council
on any matters related to law enforcement, public safety, national security,
transnational crime, and organized criminal activity.
Sec. 3. Operation and Priorities of the Task Force. (a) The Task Force
shall, on behalf of the President, coordinate and accelerate a comprehensive
national strategy to stop fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit
programs, including programs administered jointly with State, local, tribal,
and territorial partners. The Task Force shall advise the President and,
on behalf of the President, shall coordinate the work of appropriate member
agencies to:
(i) develop measures to improve eligibility verification processes in Federal
benefits programs and maximize enforcement of eligibility requirements,
including program-specific requirements and the Personal Responsibility
and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996;
(ii) develop appropriate controls that operate before funds are obligated
or disbursed to prevent improper payments in Federal benefits programs,
including by coordinating agency action to determine when ongoing fraud
or potential fraud require proactively pausing certain types of funding
until such controls can be established;
(iii) evaluate indicators of fraud and high-risk vulnerabilities to fraud,
including major fraud trends and cross-program and large-scale schemes,
which shall include considering the current and potential use by member
agencies of third-party contractors to maximize efficacy in detecting fraud;
(iv) promote the facilitation of information and data sharing and coordina-
tion between State, local, tribal, and territorial governments and the Federal
Government, and benefit-providing agencies and law enforcement agencies;
(v) disrupt and dismantle fraud networks and facilitators, including pro-
viders, contractors, or other entities and repeat cross-program offenders
through interagency information sharing and coordination;
(vi) investigate and disrupt the mechanisms through which fraud is com-
mitted, including any mechanisms involving facilitation of fraud by Fed-
eral, State, local, tribal, or territorial officials;
(vii) prevent remittance transfers that involve the proceeds of Federal
benefits fraud, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law;
(viii) audit and ensure prospective compliance monitoring, including for
use in identifying fraud in Federal benefits programs; and
(ix) analyze identifying information for all providers or retailers associated
with redemption of benefits to inspect for fraud and develop a process
by which member agencies recommend policies for wide-scale revalida-
tions or reauthorization to deter fraudulent providers, as appropriate and
to the extent consistent with applicable law.
(b) Each agency administering Federal benefit programs shall, consistent
with applicable law, provide to the Task Force information concerning such
programs that the Task Force deems relevant to advising the President
and coordinating efforts to uncover benefits fraud and increase fraud-detec-
tion capability.
(c) The Task Force shall be subject to the President’s direct supervision
and control. The Task Force, through the Chairman, shall provide frequent
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updates to the President regarding its work and shall ensure that its actions
are consistent with the President’s directions.
Sec. 4. Improved Controls and Fraud-Prevention Measures. (a) Each agency
administering Federal benefit programs represented on the Task Force shall
identify the agency’s benefit transactions and processes that are most suscep-
tible to fraud schemes, which may include new enrollments, redetermina-
tions, provider enrollments, eligibility self-attestation procedures, changes
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13488 Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 53 / Thursday, March 19, 2026 / Presidential Documents
to payment destinations or payees, or transactions involving third party
intermediaries. Within 30 days of the date of this order, each such agency
shall submit to the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Task Force descrip-
tions of such transactions and processes and suggested measures to prevent
such fraud.
(b) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Task Force shall coordinate
member agency efforts to adopt, as appropriate, minimum anti-fraud require-
ments for transactions and processes identified under subsection (a) of this
section to prevent fraud and loopholes that allow for systemic abuse and
exploitation. If such transactions and processes involving Federal funding
are administered by a State, local, territorial, or tribal jurisdiction, then
the Task Force and appropriate member agencies shall address how such
jurisdictions can demonstrate implementation of the anti-fraud requirements.
The Task Force and its member agencies also shall examine and recommend,
as appropriate, any ways that Federal funds may be withheld from jurisdic-
tions that do not have adequate anti-fraud requirements. Specifically, such
anti-fraud requirements may include:
(i) screening, proof of identity, and eligibility verification;
(ii) pre-payment integrity and risk controls, including affirmative docu-
mentation requirements concerning services provided;
(iii) information- and data-sharing processes, updated criteria, minimum
integrity checks, cross-program risk indicators, and coordinated recovery
and enforcement pathways to prevent immigration sponsor and beneficiary
and household-related related fraud, abuse, or improper usage;
(iv) appropriate use of providers, vendors, contractors, nonprofit organiza-
tions, intermediaries, and service organizations; and
(v) audit and remedial measures, including suspension, termination, repay-
ment, exclusion, and debarment actions, as appropriate.
(c) Within 90 days of the date of this order, each member of the Task
Force shall submit to the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the Task
Force a measurable implementation plan concerning the measures identified
or developed under this order.
Sec. 5. Administration. The heads of other agencies shall, upon the request
of the Chairman or the Vice Chairman, provide administrative and technical
support, or information required by the Task Force to carry out its functions.
Sec. 6. Maximizing Taxpayer Pursuit of Fraud Involving Taxpayer Dollars.
The Attorney General shall:
(a) take appropriate action to promote the meritorious pursuit by private
persons of civil actions under 31 U.S.C. 3730 concerning fraud within Federal
benefit programs; and
(b) ensure prompt review of such actions, including within the 60-day
period contemplated by 31 U.S.C. 3730(a)(4) to the maximum extent prac-
ticable.
Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed
to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency,
or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and
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subject to the availability of appropriations.
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Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 53 / Thursday, March 19, 2026 / Presidential Documents 13489
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit,
substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party
against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers,
employees, or agents, or any other person.
(d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department
of the Treasury.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 16, 2026.
[FR Doc. 2026–05497
Filed 3–18–26; 11:15 am]
Billing code 4810–25–P
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