February 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) released the following statement after Vice President J.D. Vance outlined the Administration’s efforts to combat fraud and protect taxpayers in conjunction with the President’s “war on fraud” initiative.
“Since his first day in office, President Trump has been laser focused on rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, and he’s just getting started.
“We lose an estimated $500 billion a year to fraud, according to the Government Accountability Office. That’s why President Trump and Congressional Republicans took historic action to put in place guardrails that safeguard taxpayers’ sacred treasure through the One Big Beautiful Bill. But, as President Trump’s declaration of a ‘war on fraud’ underscores, there is still work to do.
“I applaud President Trump for taking this decisive action,…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.