He dismantled the fraud unit at HHS. He changed the policy. So that bill... Hundreds of billions of dollars were lost in fraud.
OverstatedSteve Hilton, at California Governor General Election Debate (CNN)
8:02 pmWhy this verdict View evidenceHide evidence
Why we checked itSpecific allegation that Javier (presumably Becerra) dismantled the fraud unit at HHS and that hundreds of billions of dollars were lost in fraud as a result — a serious, specific, verifiable policy claim.
What we foundThe core facts are partially grounded — CMS program integrity staff were dramatically cut under the Biden administration, and hundreds of billions in COVID relief fraud occurred — but the claim overstates a direct causal link between the staffing cut and the fraud losses, which spanned both administrations and predated the specific policy changes cited.