Sen. Eric Schmitt introduced legislation to make the Trump administration's National Fraud Enforcement Division permanent, and now Senate Democrats must decide whether to join a crackdown that even House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries supported.
Schmitt, a Missouri Republican who leads the Senate's Anti-Fraud Taskforce, filed the bill Tuesday night when the Senate reopened for business. A companion measure had already cleared the House with bipartisan support, putting the spotlight squarely on Senate Democrats who have so far refused to participate in anti-fraud efforts on Capitol Hill.
The legislation would embed the National Fraud Enforcement Division permanently inside the Department of Justice, ensuring the unit survives beyond the current administration. President Trump created the division in January 2026 following reports of widespread fraud in Minnesota, a scandal that unfolded in the backyard of Gov. Tim Walz. Vice President JD Vance chairs the division, and Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald runs its day-to-day operations. Then-acting Attorney General Todd Blanche officially launched the unit.
Its stated mission: targeting fraud affecting the federal government, federally funded programs, and private citizens.
Schmitt told Fox News Digital he was surprised that Democratic offices turned down his invitation to join the Senate Anti-Fraud Taskforce when he launched it in June. The taskforce remains an all-Republican body. Not a single Democrat accepted.
"I was a little surprised. I think some offices took a look at it and, for whatever reason, didn't want to be part of the effort. I don't understand that."
He added that the offer remains open but questioned why any lawmaker would sit out an effort to protect taxpayers from criminals.
"But, you know, of course, the offer remains open if anybody wants to. I just think that this is something that our people back home expect us to work together on. And I don't understand why you wouldn't want to be a part of an anti-fraud task force."
The refusal stands in contrast to what happened in the House, where the bill to make the division permanent passed with support from Democrats, including Jeffries himself. That vote makes the Senate's Democratic resistance harder to explain to voters who expect both parties to oppose fraud.
The Trump administration has moved aggressively on multiple fronts to reshape federal enforcement priorities. The DOJ has also charged noncitizens across eight states as part of a broader voter roll crackdown, signaling that fraud in all its forms is a top-tier concern for the current White House.
Schmitt did not hold back about why he believes Democrats have been reluctant to join the anti-fraud push. He pointed to the Minnesota fraud scandal and suggested that some on the left allowed ideological sympathies to override common sense.
"They're very defensive about it, and you know the fact is that you had, maybe it had something to do with this sort of toxic empathy or suicidal empathy [they] have done on immigration where you had these Somali fraudsters and maybe, maybe their instinct to defend every group of people that came here from somewhere else, even if they're defrauding the American people, overrode their logic."
That is a pointed accusation, that Democratic leadership prioritized identity-group solidarity over the interests of the taxpayers footing the bill. Whether or not every Senate Democrat would own that framing, the fact remains that none of them joined Schmitt's taskforce.
The pattern extends beyond fraud enforcement. HHS recently pulled federal funding from New York's Medicaid fraud unit over its dismal prosecution record, another case where a blue-state institution failed to hold fraudsters accountable and the Trump administration stepped in.
Schmitt is not the only one noticing the gap. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, one of the progressive leaders of the Democratic Party, has warned that Democrats ceded ground on issues like quality of life and rooting out waste and fraud. Mamdani cautioned that finding waste had taken hold as a "right-wing concern" rather than an issue Democrats could champion.
That admission from a progressive mayor carries weight. If even the left flank of the party recognizes the problem, the Senate Democrats who refused Schmitt's invitation look less like principled opponents and more like politicians unwilling to hand the other side a win, even when the win protects taxpayers.
Mamdani's own record on cooperation with federal policy is mixed at best. The mayor recently signaled defiance of a Supreme Court ruling on immigration, vowing the city would "not ever accept" the decision. So his warning about Democrats losing credibility on fraud and accountability lands with a certain irony, even progressives who see the problem are not always willing to act on it.
The Missouri senator argued that making the division permanent matters more than any single investigation. Administrations change. Priorities shift. A unit that exists only by executive action can be dismantled by the next president with a stroke of a pen.
Schmitt framed the legislation as a safeguard against that possibility.
"Having permanence in the Department of Justice will be important so that, no matter who is president, that this remains a focus."
He also made a direct appeal across the aisle, though his tone suggested he did not expect much uptake.
"I know that we live in a hyper-partisan age, I get that. But there are some things I don't think should be partisan. Saving taxpayer money should be something we're all focused on."
The Trump administration has shown a willingness to reshape federal agencies to match its enforcement priorities, and Schmitt's bill would give one of those reshaping efforts the force of statute rather than executive discretion.
Schmitt was clear about who the division is designed to pursue.
"I mean these are criminals who, you know, are stealing from American taxpayers and the potential beneficiaries of important programs."
That framing matters. Fraud does not just drain the Treasury. It steals from the people who actually qualify for federal programs, the veterans, the elderly, the disabled, by diverting money to criminals who game the system. Every dollar stolen is a dollar that does not reach someone who earned it.
Schmitt summed up the stakes plainly.
"To me, this shouldn't be a partisan issue at all. But sadly, we live in a world where Democrats aren't as focused on this, but I think we've got an administration that is."
The Senate is, as the article noted, a different political body than the House. Whether enough Democrats cross over to pass the bill, or whether they filibuster a measure their own House colleagues supported, will say more about the party's priorities than any press conference ever could.
When one party votes to protect taxpayers from fraud and the other party will not even join the committee, voters do not need a press release to figure out who is on their side.
