Today Congressman Kurt Schrader introduced the Preventing Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Act of 2010. Schrader a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition is introducing the legislation as part of his 10-steps to fiscal reform. The legislation encourages government to make strategic investments to prevent fraud and waste within federal government programs.

“American taxpayers are frustrated with the amount of waste and fraud being found in government programs,” said Schrader. “This legislation will significantly reduce the waste in federal programs, improve program efficiency, and most importantly save taxpayers money.”

The act targets wasteful spending, fraud, and abuse in programs like the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicaid, Medicare, and Unemployment Insurance. The act would also make strategic additional investments to IRS for tax code enforcement to ensure that taxpayers are not paying more than their fair share of federal taxes. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates the act, if implemented and fully appropriated, would save more than $35 billion in the first five years and more than $132 billion over ten years.

The legislation also mandates a system to track the progress of and continually reevaluate the programs so that they can be adjusted to ensure they are delivering the savings they promise.