Trump Labor Department secures eye-popping sum to return to taxpayers amid DOGE push
In a press release, the Labor Department said $1.4 billion of unspent COVID funding will be "returned to taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Treasury's General Fund" and added that "action" is "being taken to recover the remaining $2.9 billion."
"The roughly $4.3 billion was intended for states to use for temporary unemployment insurance during the pandemic," the press release states. "Instead, several states continued spending millions of dollars despite no longer meeting necessary requirements, which was uncovered in a 2023 audit conducted by the department's Office of Inspector General."
The department explained in the press release that the funding originated from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in March 2020 and that the program was meant to provide expanded unemployment insurance for Americans who were not able to work during the pandemic.
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The program was closed in 2021, the department said, but the 2023 audit "found four states were allowed to access the funding 'despite not meeting program requirements,' totaling over $100 million in spending."
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"There's no reason leftover COVID unemployment funds should still be collecting dust," DeRemer told Fox News Digital in a statement. "I promised to look out for Americans' hard-earned tax dollars, and we are delivering at the Department of Labor."
"Any money still sitting around for pandemic-era unemployment funds is a clear misuse of Americans' hard-earned tax dollars," Chavez-DeRemer said in the press release, adding that she is "rooting out waste to ensure American Workers always come First."
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Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling said in a statement, "It's unacceptable that billions of dollars went unchecked in a program that ended several years ago.
"In a huge win for the American taxpayer, we've clawed back these unused funds and will keep working to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse."
The announcement comes after DeRemer said in her first memo to the department after taking over last month that she plans to comply with Trump's executive orders and work with DOGE to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.
"Under the leadership of President Trump, our focus remains on promoting job creation, enhancing workforce development, and ensuring safe working conditions, wages, and pensions so that every American has the opportunity to succeed," DeRemer said to employees in the memo. "I challenge each of you to actively engage with your teams to identify innovative solutions that can help us achieve our goals."
Chavez-DeRemer said that the Labor Department must align with the priorities of the Trump administration and "must focus on practicing fiscal responsibility, reducing unnecessary spending, and optimizing our resources to ensure that taxpayer dollars are utilized effectively."
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman contributed to this reportOriginal article source: Trump Labor Department secures eye-popping sum to return to taxpayers amid DOGE push
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'So part of these exhibits and monuments are also about situating us in time. And without it, it's very hard for us to situate ourselves in history because it seems like we just kind of burst forth from the Earth.' Timothy Naftali, director of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum from 2007 to 2011, presided over its overhaul to offer a more objective presentation of Watergate — one not beholden to the president's loyalists. In an interview Friday, he said he was 'concerned and disappointed' about the Smithsonian decision. Naftali, now a senior researcher at Columbia University, said museum directors 'should have red lines' and that he considered removing the Trump panel to be one of them. While it might seem inconsequential for someone in power to care about a museum's offerings, Wagner-Pacifici says Trump's outlook on history and his role in it — earlier this year, he said the Smithsonian had 'come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology' — shows how important those matters are to people in authority. 'You might say about that person, whoever that person is, their power is so immense and their legitimacy is so stable and so sort of monumental that why would they bother with things like this ... why would they bother to waste their energy and effort on that?' Wagner-Pacifici said. Her conclusion: 'The legitimacy of those in power has to be reconstituted constantly. They can never rest on their laurels.'
