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James Lankford is touting a new anti-fraud legislative package aimed at recovering billions in stolen COVID-era funds. The package, led by Joni Ernst, bundles together 17 bills under the banner of the Protecting American Taxpayers Act. The goal is to claw back cash, protect taxpayer dollars, and stop fraudsters from treating federal programs like a late-night ATM.

Lawmakers say the urgency comes after widespread fraud, including major schemes in Minnesota, helped siphon off an eye-watering estimated $1.4 billion per day from taxpayers. Lankford pointed to his own Recover Fraudulent COVID Funds Act as a key piece of the package, arguing it will help close legal loopholes that allowed billions in relief money to vanish while the government apparently watched with mild concern. He says the broader effort would reclaim more than $65 billion in unspent COVID funds and finally bring some accountability to what he’s previously dubbed Washington’s “Federal Fumbles.”

Ernst, meanwhile, is leaning into the whole “better late than never” approach, declaring that the fraud “stops here” and framing the legislation as a line in the sand between taxpayers and swindlers. Among the provisions is a proposal to extend the statute of limitations on pandemic-era fraud cases from five years to ten, giving law enforcement more time to track down bad actors after oversight mechanisms somehow missed them the first time around. The package is expected to head for a vote soon, where senators will get the opportunity to publicly declare that, yes, they are in fact against fraud.