“$1 trillion in taxpayer money is lost to fraud every year,” Hawley says at Senate hearing
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Monday highlighted what he described as massive losses to government fraud, saying in a social media post that “$1 TRILLION in taxpayer money is lost to fraud every year,” and claiming the money ends up funding terrorism and child trafficking.
$1 TRILLION in taxpayer money is lost to fraud every year.
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) February 11, 2026
That’s $115 million an hour.
And where is the rampant fraud money going? To terrorism and child trafficking
This is madness and it must end pic.twitter.com/j53itZ0Zzl
Hawley, a Missouri Republican, posted the comments alongside video from a Senate hearing where he pressed a private-sector witness about the scope of fraud and where stolen funds go. In the post, Hawley said the estimate equaled “$115 million an hour,” adding: “And where is the rampant fraud money going? To terrorism and child trafficking.” The senator concluded, “This is madness and it must end.”
The $1 trillion figure Hawley referenced was raised during testimony from Haywood Talcove, the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, according to a Hawley Senate news release summarizing the exchange. In that account, Hawley asked Talcove where roughly “a trillion dollars” lost annually to fraud goes, and Talcove responded that it goes to “terrorism,” “child trafficking,” and “drugs,” among other uses, while repeating the “$115 million an hour” calculation.
Independent estimates of federal losses due to fraud and related payment problems vary widely, in part because agencies and watchdogs draw distinctions between fraud and “improper payments.” The Government Accountability Office has said improper payments are those that should not have been made or were made in the wrong amount, and that all fraudulent payments are improper — but not all improper payments are caused by fraud.
GAO reported that the federal government estimated $162 billion in improper payments across agencies for fiscal year 2024, a figure that includes errors and other non-fraud payment issues. Separately, GAO has estimated annual financial losses from fraud alone ranging from $233 billion to $521 billion.
Hawley’s comments land amid growing political focus on “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal programs, with lawmakers from both parties periodically pushing for tighter identity verification, stronger oversight of benefit programs and more aggressive prosecution of organized fraud rings. Hawley has argued that the scale of fraud is not just a budget issue but a national security concern, tying the losses to criminal networks and foreign threats.
