The Cost of Defunding the Fight Against Fraud and Corruption

Dedicated career prosecutors devote their professional lives to fighting corruption and protecting honest businesses and citizens who follow the law. Our federal government is now undermining those efforts and encouraging corruption by not enforcing our laws evenhandedly and fairly.

This country’s freedoms and prosperity are grounded in the Rule of Law. 2025 has brought threats to the Rule of Law that undermine our prosperity and freedoms. The Rule of Law demands constant recognition that:

1. No one is above the law, including the President, members of Congress, and judges.
2. All persons stand equal before the law.
3. Laws must not be applied arbitrarily, but in a predictable and transparent way.

And yet, our government’s 2025 defunding and deterring of many law enforcement efforts will further diminish the Rule of Law and lead to greater burdens on taxpayers.

Consider the return on investment of spending on law enforcement. For roughly the past decade, the IRS estimates tax cheating has created an annual $500-600 billion “tax gap” – the amount of taxes owed but not paid.  For every dollar spent on enforcement, the government can recover more than six dollars and reduce that tax gap, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Yet in 2025, the government has dramatically cut staffing and spending dedicated to collecting these stolen funds. For example, the IRS has acknowledged cutting revenue agents—the IRS staff who perform essential roles in audits–by more than 30% in 2025.  By defunding tax enforcement, we are inviting more cheating, allowing the tax gap to grow, and blowing a bigger hole in the federal budget.

Similarly, in 2025 we are encouraging more health care fraud by reducing resources used to uncover it. The federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid reports it recovers more than eight dollars for each dollar spent on Medicare program integrity.  Yet in 2025, our U.S. Attorney’s Offices have had hiring frozen, and existing personnel reassigned away from recovering these funds through prosecution of wire and securities fraud violations as well as enforcement of the False Claims Act.

Since the 2008 financial collapse, enhanced enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has recovered billions and increased deterrence of financial fraud.  In 2025, however, these agencies have begun to chip away at staffing and resources in enforcement. Once again, the message to lawbreakers is that their risk of getting caught is substantially less, thus incentivizing bad actors to keep defrauding investors.

The Administration also has announced it is narrowing enforcement of the important Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This law prohibits bribing foreign government officials and keeping inaccurate accounting records – two hallmarks of corruption that harm investors.  When businesses must compete on a level playing field without corrupt payments or doctored records, honest businesses flourish and investors have greater protection and confidence.  Limiting enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act undermines those goals and encourages corruption, thus further undermining respect for the law.

Even more disturbing, large political donors to the President have obtained pardons or clemency in 2025, despite convictions for serious white-collar crimes. Pardons provided as a quid pro quo for donations have long been regarded as illegal.  The 2025 pardon recipients thus far include Nikola founder Trevor Milton ($1.8 million reported campaign donation) and nursing home executive Paul Walczak ($1million reportedly paid by his mother to attend a fundraising dinner). “Equal justice under the law” seems a hollow phrase when those who fail to donate large sums must serve their sentences for similar crimes. The explanation and justification for these recent actions are unclear, which further undermines respect for the Rule of Law.

Efforts by the White House and Congress to defund and diminish  enforcement of the law not only cost taxpayers money, but they also threaten the Rule of Law. Every citizen interested in law and order should speak out now and insist that this self-inflicted damage to our country stop.