All articles tagged with #covid relief funds
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) resigned amid ethics charges, including allegations she stole $5 million in Covid relief funds, as bipartisan calls for her ouster intensified and a House Ethics Committee public hearing was set to proceed; she said the proceedings were not a fair process and chose to step aside.
More than 30 House Democrats say they’re prepared to vote to expel Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick after the House Ethics Committee weighs its findings; expulsion would require about 80 Democratic votes, with leadership weighing how to respond but many lawmakers ready to back it if the committee recommends it. Cherfilus-McCormick denies wrongdoing in a criminal case tied to alleged laundering of COVID relief funds and has pleaded not guilty; some predict she may resign rather than face a vote.
The DOJ has charged Chinese national YunHe Wang with operating the "world's largest botnet," 911 S5, which stole $5.9 billion in Covid relief funds and was involved in various other crimes. Wang allegedly amassed $99 million from selling access to compromised IP addresses and faces up to 65 years in prison. The botnet, active from 2014 to 2022, hacked over 19 million IP addresses globally. The FBI has provided guidance for identifying and removing the malware.
The owners of a Colorado funeral home, where 190 decaying bodies were found, have been indicted on federal charges for fraudulently obtaining nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds and also face state charges for abusing corpses. The couple allegedly used the funds for personal expenses, including cars, vacations, and cryptocurrency, while leaving behind unpaid bills and unsettled business disputes. Families discovered that their loved ones were not properly cremated, leading to a devastating impact on hundreds of grieving families. The case has also highlighted lax regulations for funeral homes in Colorado, prompting lawmakers to introduce bills for stricter rules.
President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have agreed on a deal to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and cap some federal spending until Jan. 1, 2025. The deal would boost total defense spending to $886 billion, in line with Biden's 2024 budget spending proposal, and shift $10 billion in each of calendar years 2024 and 2025 in funding away from the Internal Revenue Service. The estimated amount of unused Covid relief funds is between $50 billion and $70 billion, and the new bill would require the Biden administration to follow through with a plan to end the current pause on student loan repayments by late August. The agreement would impose new work requirements on some low-income people who receive food assistance under the program known as SNAP up to age 54, instead of up to age 50.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden have struck a deal to suspend the debt limit until the first quarter of 2025, beyond the 2024 elections. The deal does not return spending to 2022 levels and instead keeps non-defense spending about flat, with current 2023 levels for 2024. The White House and McCarthy's negotiating team agreed on overhauling the country's permitting laws, clawing back unspent COVID relief funds, and fully funding medical care for veterans. The agreement doesn't make any changes to the Inflation Reduction Act's clean energy and climate provisions, and there are no new tax increases in the deal.
House Republicans are considering recalling between $50 billion and $70 billion in unspent Covid relief funds as a way to save money and avoid cutting funding for popular federal programs. However, identifying and accessing the leftover money is a challenge, and even if they succeed, it would do little to shrink the nation's $1.4 trillion deficit. The move is just one way Republicans are trying to rein in federal spending in exchange for their votes to raise the debt ceiling, which is expected to be breached as early as June. The White House has pushed back on the proposal, signaling that it would not support rescinding a significant amount of the funds.