A senior Labor Department official said the Trump administration is pursuing aggressive anti-fraud measures after what he described as one of the largest thefts of taxpayer money in American history involving unemployment insurance payments distributed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The comments came during an exchange between Benny Johnson and Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, who discussed the scale of unemployment insurance fraud and the administration’s efforts to prevent similar abuses in the future.

“Employment insurance fraud, massive vector of fraud in the country. How are you going to be solving this?” Johnson asked.

Sonderling began by highlighting President Donald Trump’s creation of a federal anti-fraud initiative and Vice President J.D. Vance’s leadership role in the effort.

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“Yeah, well, let's take a step back. And first, we need to thank President Trump for establishing the task force on fraud at the White House and appointing our great Vice President JD Vance to leading it,” Sonderling said.

According to Sonderling, the administration has coordinated efforts across federal agencies to identify fraud and protect taxpayer dollars.

“They've put such tremendous efforts across all agencies to really root out fraud and root out fraud, particularly in government programs that gives out your hard-earned taxpayers dollars to individuals,” Sonderling said.

Sonderling said the Labor Department’s focus centers on unemployment insurance programs that expanded dramatically during the pandemic.

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“So, the Department of Labor's role in this is related to unemployment insurance, and with unemployment insurance, we need to take a step back. During COVID, $900 billion was given out to help people get back on their feet, to help people deal with some of the job losses related to COVID,” Sonderling said.

However, he said a significant portion of those funds was lost to fraud during the Biden administration.

“But during the Biden administration, 135 billion of that money was stolen by fraud. So, think about the scale of that. 135 billion is one of the largest taxpayer thefts in history,” Sonderling said.

He described widespread abuse involving payments issued to individuals who did not qualify for benefits.

“And when you look about that, how rampant the fraud was across the country. It was related to paying people who were in prison, who obviously aren't able to work, paying people who were under 14, three year olds, seven year olds getting unemployment insurance,” Sonderling said.

Sonderling questioned how such payments were able to occur and attributed the problem to inadequate safeguards and oversight.

“And you know, how did that happen? It was a lack of controls, it was states just turning a blind eye and letting this money flow,” Sonderling said.

According to Sonderling, the administration’s anti-fraud task force is now focused on preventing a repeat of those problems by implementing stronger protections throughout the system.

“So, with the Vice President's task force, it's really making sure that never happens again,” Sonderling said.

He added that the administration is pursuing substantial reforms aimed at protecting taxpayer funds and strengthening oversight of federal benefit programs.

“And we're taking some really extraordinary measures to ensure that never happens,” Sonderling said.

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The administration has made fraud prevention a major focus, with officials arguing that tighter controls, improved verification systems, and coordinated oversight are necessary to prevent future losses and ensure government assistance reaches eligible recipients.

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