Senate Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to release more details about an alleged criminal operation designed to defraud state unemployment programs across the country, fearing these systems remain vulnerable to attack amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the Washington Post reported. The lawmakers’ concerns stem from a memo the U.S. government circulated in May indicating scammers may have harnessed stolen Social Security numbers and other personal information to obtain weekly jobless benefits. The attack appeared to target states including Washington, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Florida at a time when roughly 40 million Americans were seeking benefits as a result of the coronavirus and in need of financial support. Little else is known about the incident, leading lawmakers including Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate’s leading health committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), who leads the party on the Senate Finance Committee, to demand answers. They also called on the government to dedicate new resources toward helping states defend themselves against similar criminal operations, particularly as they race to get critical jobless aid to Americans who need it most.
