JD Vance announces reward for Nick Shirley

J.D. is very proud, very proud of the fact that they found a lot, but that's peanuts compared to what we're going to find with this incentive or commission. Thank you very much. J.D., go ahead. Well, thank you, Mr. President. And just to give people some background there, I actually came out of a conversation that I was having with the president. We were talking about the scale of fraud and we're talking about ideas for how to enlist our fellow citizens to help us do the work of fighting the fraud. And the president said, well, do a commission, do an incentive program, actually reward people when they help save the country, but also save the American taxpayer a lot of money, then they should get to share in the benefits that they've created. And I think it's an incredible testament to the president's direct involvement in this entire program, which brings me to my second point. A lot of people have asked me, why is the president's directive, why is the president's involvement in this so important? And I think Andrew Ferguson and I have learned day to day that without actual coordination across the various arms of government, this work would not be possible. The fact that the president has empowered us, but also told all of the cabinet secretaries to do the work they need to do in order to coordinate, because sometimes the fraud will touch seven different departments simultaneously, and you actually need presidential-led directive in order to fight that fraud simultaneously. So, Mr. President, thank you. I do enjoy this work. I do think it's fun. I think it's most of all important for the American people. But it would not be possible if the president hadn't empowered his senior team to make it possible. And the final thing that I'll say here is we're actually thrilled to be joined by Nick Shirley, who, as the president said, has done more than anybody that I've met recently as a citizen journalist to uncover the fraud. Nick is going to get a financial reward for doing so. I know that's not why he did it. But to Americans across the country, your tax dollars are being stolen and your tax dollars are being stolen from programs that help feed the needy, that help ensure that a young mom who can't afford a doctor can get access to a doctor for her kids. It steals from the very social fabric of the United States of America. The president has said it must stop. It is stopping. And if you want to help us stop it, you get to share the rewards now thanks to what the president of the United States has done. So thank you, sir, and thanks to our amazing team for making it possible. Thank you very much, J.D., and just before we go, I was just thinking when you do these things, sometimes there's a dispute as to who turned them in and who didn't turn them in and who's supposed to get what and when and, you know, somebody else gave it. So I am going to do something which I think people will like. I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions. In other words, I'll determine whether or not the person is deserving, and I'll determine, and I will be very generous, believe me. We're not looking to save on that. But you could have disputes where you have three people come in and they say, I'm going to make it, we're going to make it like a binding arbitration. I'll make the determination. I promise you I'll be fair, and I'm not doing it for any other reasons other than to expedite, because I think it's very important, but it'll be a binding arbitration. You'll get your money immediately, but I'll make the determination. So if two people are fighting over it, maybe they'll split it or maybe whatever, but I'll make that determination. It'll be done expeditiously and fairly, and we won't have long lines waiting or court cases or anything else. We'll have a binding arbitration. Does that sound good to you guys? Yes, sir. Does everybody trust me to do it? I promise. There's nothing in this for me. And I would like to have that handsome group of people come up here with us. Is that all right? All you guys, come on up here. They've done so great. Come on up here, fellas. Look at them. Young, handsome people. I've always hated young, handsome people. I've never liked them. Come on up. You got it? These people are outstanding. uh please thank you mr president a lot of journalists in the room today everyone knew about the Quality Leering Center they were cited hundreds of times over the course of a couple years no one reported it none of your outlets reported it it took one brave kid and a camera to make everyone aware of this and it launched a revolution and president trump did what only president trump could have which is turn the entire federal government coming up with new ways to stop this fraud everywhere in the federal government. This whistleblower incentive program is one example, but it's not all. He created the task force. He put the vice president in charge to sit above the entire rest of the government and direct the government's actions on this. We created the National Fraud Division at DOJ, led by Colin McDonald, who's done a wonderful job. They've already been getting huge results for the American people. Just yesterday, they filed to seize half a city block in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with property that had been obtained with SNAP dollars that should have gone to hungry Minnesotans and was instead used to buy illegally and fraudulently property in Minneapolis. DOJ, led by Todd Blanche, Colin McDonald, Trent McCotter, have been going after these fraudsters night and day. Cash Patel has been chasing them to every corner of the globe. You can run, you can't hide, we're going to get you. And President Trump has proposed two super important pieces of legislation. The first one is mandatory minimums for everyone who commits benefits fraud. Right now, judges are routinely giving slaps on the wrist to people who commit what they consider low-level fraud, that can't continue. If you steal from the American people, you should go to jail, and it shouldn't be up to a district judge to decide whether the fraud is bad enough. President Trump has proposed that Congress pass mandatory minimums today so that everyone who commits fraud that DOJ finds goes to jail. And the second thing is, for state officials who knew about fraud in their states, like in Minnesota, and did nothing, they ought to face liability for this. It can't be that they can preside over the wanton theft from their citizens, the destruction of these important benefits programs, going to fraudsters rather than the needy people. So President Trump has also proposed that Congress pass a law that imposes civil liability on state officials who fail to stop fraud that they could have stopped. This is revolutionary, just like the Fraud Task Force. It would supercharge our fraud experts, and I think it is a brilliant move. And by the way, congressional Democrats have fought that every step of the way, and congressional Republicans have supported it, so remember that in a couple weeks. You would say, how could you fight that? Yes, sir. What's the fight? Oz, please, go ahead. Mr. President, Vice President, thanks to the Anti-Fraud Task Force, we've broken down all the silos, which has helped CMS, Medicare, Medicaid a lot, because oftentimes the ability to pursue cases depends on our ability to get DOJ involved, but also our ability to get Treasury involved, to follow where the money's hiding. It's not just a criminal in front of you that Nick saw. It's also the people behind him who are making the big dollars. And what we have found is our biggest allies actually are people in those businesses who know that wrong is being done. They know where the red flags are. They can point them out to us, and that actually leads us directly on a trail to success with the many different fraudsters we've been able to take out. Now, the devastating blow to fraud that is being levered right now into even bigger actions is not done yet. We have at least two more years of hard work to do on this. But, Nick, thanks to you and other citizen journalists, advocates, folks who are willing to step out and make some news happen that allows us to understand what people on the ground are saying, we're tipped off to big problems. Take Minnesota as an example. I'll just pick one case because I think it's a good reflection of the real damage of fraud. Mr. President, fraud doesn't just steal our money. Fraud steals people's lives, and it also steals our trust as a nation. And that is devastating to any country. So when Nick showed us that, for example, autism services, which was supposed to be a billion dollars, have now gotten to be $400 billion, and the reason was that people were getting bribed, moms were getting bribed $1,500 a kid to lie that their child had autism. That has two problems. One, the kid now falsely has a diagnosis that's not right, which saddles them with an unfortunate future, and you also have moms who need the help of their kids who have autism to not be able to afford it. So let's fast forward what this meant. We, after hearing Nick's work and pursuing it as well, starting at the end of last year, we were able to identify that about a third of all the providers in the 14 high-risk areas in Minnesota were not validatable. They weren't legitimately able to produce the result that you would want to give to a patient. One in three should have been doing that job. We are now pursuing dozens of cases against those folks, including criminal investigations. We also deferred a half a billion dollars so far from Minnesota in those 14 categories because we don't think they can justify those expenses. And, Mr. President, that teaches people that they actually have to send real bills and they can't make them up. Now, fraud in Minnesota rhymes with fraud in California, where Nick went next. And in California, the Stop Nick Shirley Act has been passed. But we think it's going to fail because I'll make this announcement today on behalf of Secretary Kennedy, Health and Human Services. that we are going to defer $1.2 billion more from California today. They just got the note, and we're doing that because the growth of personal care services in California, just that one little area where you're paying someone to carry groceries upstairs for your mom, which many of you would carry groceries upstairs for your mom for free, I would think, but in California they'll pay you a lot of money for it, and it's actually run by the counties, but California has been growing that program 24% in the last three years. That is twice the rate of every other state average in the country. Impossible for us to understand how that could be so. So we're taking major action in California. Again, $1.2 billion deferred in their Medicaid payments directed to personal care services. And, Nick, you and I went to Queens, New York earlier this year. Nick has a unique ability, Mr. President, to walk into a room and ask piercing questions undaunted by people's inability to answer things like, why are we paying you to play mahjong in a senior center? isn't that something you again would do for free uh where i was in new york this morning same places that we went it was the largest enforcement action of its kind we'll hear much more about it later this week but task force is going on all cylinders and i'll speak as representative secretary kennedy health we can't do it without the task force mr president and jd what you've been able to do and the rest of the team is unbelievable uh it is remarkable when you get andrew and colin and others to see it in the room and actually push for one single solution all of a All of a sudden, the usual walls between the solid institutions of government break down, and we make change happen. We just need a little more time, sir, to get it done. Great job. Thank you, as always. Nick, please. Yeah, first off, it's such an honor to be here, and I want people to think about what is happening right now. It's a very cool place. Very cool place. The Oval Office. Me, as a 24-year-old, I went out and exposed the fraud. I just was concerned about the well-being of our tax dollars, and right now I'm standing next to the President of the United States. as now people who expose fraud. There's never been an incentive for anyone to ever expose fraud. In fact, when I exposed fraud, instead of the mainstream media investigating the fraud, they investigated me. And people actually, in fact, wanted to kill me after I exposed the fraud. Because there's actually never... Were you surprised by that, Nick? I was very surprised. They went after you instead of the fraudster. They called the Learning Center. I'm not surprised. And asked the Learning Center if they were committing fraud. That was the extent of their reporting. and but now finally people have an incentive to actually go out expose fraud and when you expose fraud you help save America people understand that these fraudsters take from the poor and needy who actually need the services that we all work hard to pay for and we take that and they then buy Mercedes they then send that money overseas but now for the first time ever they'll be an incentive for people to actually go out and make that change inside their own community so I hope by today millions of people are empowered inside of the United States go out and actually make a change inside your own community and you'll actually be rewarded for saving America money when you save when you expose fraud you help save America great thank you