Democrats reluctantly hand Trump major victory on key program targeting Tim Walz
President Donald Trump's crackdown on government fraud is getting unexpected backup from a majority of House Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
More than 140 House Democrats voted with all Republicans to make the National Fraud Enforcement Division permanent on Wednesday. The bill passed in an overwhelming 352 to 72 vote, with all of its opponents being Democrats as well.
Trump's White House first announced the creation of a new division within the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat fraud in January 2026, primarily targeting "fraud affecting the federal government, federally funded programs, and private citizens," according to a release by the administration.
It was notably used as a cudgel against Trump's political enemies earlier this year, when Vice President JD Vance referred Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison to the fraud division for a potential criminal investigation.
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Republicans accused Walz and Ellison of helping facilitate what's become a ballooning fraud scandal affecting Minnesota's social welfare programs. Both have acknowledged that taxpayer dollars were taken advantage of but accused GOP actors of casting the situation as worse than it actually is as a political attack.
The Trump administration's announcement of the fraud division also touted its actions in Minnesota, which it said was experiencing a "fraud epidemic."
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a top House progressive, said he would give "tepid support" to the legislation, while pointing out a fraud division has already existed within the DOJ for decades.
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"This is hardly some kind of great breakthrough in law enforcement or criminal justice, but it is perhaps the least offensive piece of legislative flotsam and jetsam that has washed ashore in the last 48 hours of Republican chaos and retreat here in the House of Representatives," Raskin said on the House floor.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., responded, "This conversation is about a piece of legislation. It's about a piece of legislation that we want to be enacted into law. It's not a partisan initiative. It's a permanent, nonpartisan commitment that we do something better because the people who are listening here... the people who are watching, they're getting tired of it."
"They're getting tired of all the money that has been wasted. And to try to pretend that just a few years ago, a couple of years ago, everything was perfect, everything was taken care of and that there was no corruption, we know better," Van Drew said.
Raskin spent a significant amount of time accusing Trump and his administration allies of corruption at the expense of prosecuting actual fraud cases, something Republicans pushed back against.
"What has come out of Minnesota over the last year, what has been exposed, is absolutely criminal in nature," said Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo. "I think what is coming, what is being exposed in blue cities and blue states run by Democrats, demonstrates that it's probably higher by an order of magnitude."
Raskin then targeted Van Drew directly in his comments: "My dear friend from New Jersey wants to make it sound like I'm doing something partisan. I'm joining his bill."
"It would be very easy for me to say I reject everything you do because you're on the side of this pro-fraud president, but I'm not doing that. Your bill says, let's call this the ‘National Fraud Enforcement Unit.’ I say, fine, that makes sense to me," Raskin said. "Why don't you cross the aisle and say it's wrong for them to be pardoning white-collar fraudster after white-collar fraudster, or at least pardoning them from having to pay the fines and the restitution back? It's an honest question. Do you really think that $1.7 billion should go from what was going to be the pockets of the victims back into the bank account of the perpetrators?"
Van Drew responded, "The gentleman has his numbers. He has his vision, he has his partisan ideas, and that's up to him. But I'm trying to point out today... we're trying to make something that is right now just an executive order and make it law to help the people."