A top House Republican announced new legislation Tuesday to double the statute of limitations on pandemic unemployment fraud to 10 years and urged fellow lawmakers to move fast, saying they have to act by March 27 or else lose the chance.

Rep. Jason Smith, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, said Congress cannot extend the statute of limitations once that date is crossed.

Estimates put the amount of fraud in the pandemic program anywhere between $100 billion and $400 billion, and just $5 billion has been recovered. That leaves nearly all of the fraud unaccounted for.

“Failure to extend this statute of limitations would mean that the thousands of criminals and international criminal organizations that perpetrated the greatest theft of American taxpayer dollars in history will never be brought to justice,” said Mr. Smith, Missouri Republican.

Uncle Sam spent roughly $800 billion on expanded unemployment benefits during the pandemic. It was one of the major support programs to deal with the shutdowns, along with several business grant and loan programs.

Those business programs were also plagued by fraud, and Congress in 2022 doubled the statute of limitations for prosecutions for those programs from 5 to 10 years.

But it has failed to act on the unemployment timeline, which currently stands at five years.

Both House and Senate lawmakers have introduced legislation in the past to extend the statute of limitations, and one bill cleared the GOP-led House. But the Senate, under Democratic control at the time, didn’t take action.

The Senate is now under Republican control.

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• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.