140 House Dems Make Major Trump Program Permanent

More than 140 House Democrats joined Republicans on Wednesday to make President Donald Trump’s National Fraud Enforcement Division a permanent part of the Justice Department. The bill passed 352-72. Every no vote came from Democrats. All Republicans voted yes.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was among the Democrats who supported it. The administration created the division earlier this year to investigate fraud involving the federal government, federally funded programs, and private citizens.

The House passed legislation to codify into law President Trump's National Fraud Enforcement Division within DOJ. pic.twitter.com/tOLwCS5FvO

— D. Scott @eclipsethis2003 (@eclipsethis2003) September 17, 2026

The House bill would write the division into statute instead of leaving it as an executive creation. It would also create an assistant attorney general, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, to oversee fraud work in taxpayer-funded programs.

The unit became political after Vice President JD Vance referred Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison for possible investigation over fraud in state-administered programs. Walz and Ellison have acknowledged major fraud in Minnesota programs but rejected claims that they facilitated it.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., offered what he called “tepid support.” He said the Justice Department has fought fraud for decades. “This is hardly some kind of great breakthrough in law enforcement or criminal justice, but it is perhaps the least offensive piece of legislative flotsam and jetsam that has washed ashore in the last 48 hours of Republican chaos and retreat here in the House of Representatives,” he said.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said the point was to turn an executive project into standing law. “This conversation is about a piece of legislation… It’s not a partisan initiative. It’s a permanent, nonpartisan commitment that we do something better because the people who are listening here… they’re getting tired of it.”

Republicans pointed to Minnesota. “What has come out of Minnesota over the last year, what has been exposed, is absolutely criminal in nature,” said Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.

Raskin said he would not oppose the bill just to oppose Trump. “It would be very easy for me to say I reject everything you do because you’re on the side of this pro-fraud president, but I’m not doing that,” he said, while asking Republicans about pardons and restitution.

Van Drew answered that the vote was about making an executive order into law. The measure still needs Senate approval.

The House result is lopsided and bipartisan on paper. The floor debate was not. Democrats who voted yes still used the debate to attack the administration. Republicans used Minnesota as the example of why the office should exist in statute.

The practical effect, if the Senate agrees, is a named fraud division with its own Senate-confirmed head rather than a unit that lives only by presidential order.