Preventing Rip-offs and Obtaining Oversight of Funds Act

Preventing Rip-offs and Obtaining Oversight of Funds Act or the PROOF Act

This bill requires states to provide such information as the Department of Justice (DOJ) may require for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting alleged fraud committed with regard to certain federally funded programs.

Programs covered by this requirement include:

• Medicaid,
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),
• certain federal payments and grants to state governments related to the coronavirus response, and
• any other program to which funds are made available to states and identified by DOJ as vulnerable to fraud.

A federal agency may only use such information for law enforcement purposes related to fraud and may not disclose it for any unrelated administrative or commercial purpose.

DOJ must annually report to Congress on the number of requests for information issued to state agencies under this bill, the programs with respect to which such requests were made, and the number of fraud investigations initiated and convictions secured using the information obtained.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov