Reps. Finstad, Griffith: The Nightmare on the Democrats' Fraud Street
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a brand-new episode of the Republican Study Committee’s (RSC) Right to the Point podcast, Rep. Brad Finstad (MN-01) sits down with Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA-09), in his first appearance on the podcast, to discuss what Republicans have done to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs.
The Trump administration has successfully uncovered over $260 billion in fraud, with RSC leading the charge to codify the Trump administration’s anti-fraud victories into law, hold fraudsters accountable, and protect vulnerable Americans and taxpayers. The Working Families Tax Cuts Act included several anti-fraud measures, such as severely limiting provider tax financing schemes that artificially inflate spending in Medicaid to increase federal reimbursement and putting processes in place to ensure taxpayers are not paying twice for the same individual being enrolled in Medicaid in multiple states. RSC Members were also among the first to sign onto Vice President JD Vance’s Pledge to Protect Americans from Fraud, which commits to cracking down on the misuse of public benefits by strengthening oversight and accountability measures.
In January 2026, the Trump administration announced the creation of a new division within the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate and enforce federal criminal and civil laws against fraudsters who steal from federal programs. Rep. Finstad introduced The National Fraud Enforcement Division Act of 2026 to make this a permanent division within the DOJ and require that the office be led by an Assistant Attorney General for Fraud Enforcement appointed under federal law. The bill passed the House of Representatives in September.
You can listen to the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Read highlights from the conversation below:
Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA-09): “What we see around the country is that so much of this fraud is international criminal conspiracies, where the money is actually going out of the country, going to foreign nations…I think our systems were built thinking that, you know, fraud might be that somebody was claiming that they had a little bit more back pain than they did to try to get benefits or something like that. And that's not what we're talking about today…Frankly, we're getting pickpocketed daily by foreign adversaries who want to take advantage of us.”
Rep. Brad Finstad (MN-01): “[We’re sending] the message that fraudsters can no longer abuse our taxpayers like ATMs…Some of the misconceptions that I think Republicans get labelled with is that we’re cold, we’re heartless, we’re cutting programs, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. When you look at the work that we did to strengthen the Medicaid program or strengthen SNAP, it was really intended to make sure it was getting to our neighbors in need. Not the neighbors in want and not the crooks in waiting…We truly believe in giving people a hand up, not just a hand out.”
Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA-09): “A lot of Democrat states set weak or insufficient oversight guardrails as to what’s out there and what’s being done. So we're going to need to beef that up.”
Rep. Brad Finstad (MN-01): “The other piece that you talked about is just the common sense that is lacking…The president setting up this whistleblower protection program that he is touting right now in Minnesota. We’ve had hundreds of state employees that have been whistleblowers that were told to shut up and sit down, they were told to turn a blind eye. We need to empower those employees to actually do these audits and do it with confidence, knowing that they’ll have the backup of our government when they see an injustice, when they see this fraud and this crime. They need to be empowered to stand up and speak to it…The Republican Study Committee has been a great source of uncovering this fraud, working on legislation that really combats fraud. We have a great partner in President Trump and Vice President Vance.”