The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is pausing new Medicare enrollment for hospices and home health agencies for six months to review alleged rampant fraud.

Vice President JD Vance’s Anti-Fraud Task Force is working with the agency to combat fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare. So far, the task force has withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers across the country, Fox News reported.

“We’ve seen systemic and deeply troubling fraud in the hospice and home health space, with bad actors exploiting some of our most vulnerable Medicare patients and stealing money from the American taxpayer,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said.

“Today we’re shutting the door on fraud—preventing new bad actors from entering Medicare while we aggressively identify, investigate, and remove those already exploiting them. This is about protecting patients, restoring integrity, and safeguarding taxpayer dollars,” Oz said.

The announcement comes after The Daily Wire reported on alleged widespread Medicare fraud in Ohio’s home health industry. Officials with Ohio Medicaid told The Columbus Dispatch the department had been investigating fraud concerns before the recent reports surfaced.

The moratorium will not affect current Medicare enrollments. Existing providers will continue to deliver services to Medicare beneficiaries.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will use the new enrollment moratorium to “intensify targeted investigations, deploy advanced data analytics, and accelerate the removal of hospice and HHA providers from the Medicare program that are suspected of committing fraud,” according to a news release.

The administration hopes to stop bad actors from evading detection by crossing state lines.

Earlier this year, the agency announced a similar moratorium to prevent fraudulent Medicare billing by certain durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies companies.

In February, Vance announced that the administration was withholding reimbursements for $259.5 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota pending an investigation into allegations of widespread welfare fraud there.

Vance is holding a news conference Wednesday afternoon to warn all 50 states they must fully comply with anti-fraud statutes or risk losing federal Medicaid funding, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Under President [Donald] Trump, we are unleashing the most aggressive federal anti-fraud efforts in American history,” Vance said. “We won’t rest until we root out every bit of fraud infecting our government and screwing over taxpayers.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said her political aspirations go beyond becoming president, as she addressed speculation she is preparing to run for the White House in 2028.

“My ambition is to change this country,” said the New York Democrat and leader of the progressive House faction, “the squad,” in a conversation with President Barack Obama’s former top political adviser, David Axelrod, Friday at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

“They assume that my ambition is positional; they assume that my ambition is a title or a seat,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And my ambition is way bigger than that.”

“Presidents come and go; Senate, House seats, elected officials come and go, but single-payer health care is forever. A living wage is forever. Workers’ rights are forever. Women’s rights, all of that,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

While the former bartender was criticized for her lack of foreign policy expertise at the Global Economic Forum in January, Ocasio-Cortez has proven to be an agenda-setter for the Democrats.

The congresswoman says she wakes up in the morning asking, “What move or decision can I make today that’s going to get us closer to that future, stronger, faster, and better than yesterday?”

Her main moves tend to revolve around attacking the wealthy.

A War on Billionaires

After receiving mockery for her statement last week that “You can’t earn a billion dollars,” Ocasio-Cortez doubled down in her chat with Axelrod, claiming that “the American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time, and we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and the state, that the voices of everyday people did not exist.”

She also claimed billionaires are trying to thwart her ambitions to change the country, conveniently ignoring those billionaires who bankroll the progressive agenda.

“No billionaire can stop that,” she said. “No concentrated level of power and no elite, no gatekeeper, can prevent me from doing everything I can,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez then reiterated that her mission of “waking up every day in service of the working class” can be accomplished anywhere.

“I can do that in the House, in the Senate. I can do that in the White House,” she said. “I can do it from a shack in upstate New York chopping wood and being a burnout. I can do it from anywhere.”

A Yale Youth Poll from fall 2025 revealed Ocasio-Cortez has strong backing among young Democrats versus other potential presidential candidates. There Ocasio-Cortez leads among Democrats under 35 with 32% support.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Amid Police Week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is targeting Democrat Senate candidates with a series of ads accusing them of being anti-law enforcement.

The NRSC has produced eight new ads targeting Democrat Senate candidates in battleground states: former Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Graham Platner of Maine, Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, former Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska, Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, and former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.

The campaign committee is also targeting three Democrat candidates in Michigan’s Senate primary: Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and former health official Abdul El-Sayed.

 Additionally, one of the ads takes aim at two Iowa Democrat candidates: state Sen. Zach Wahls and state Rep. Josh Turek.

“As Democrats prioritize dangerous illegal immigrants and threaten to abolish law enforcement agencies, Republicans are working to keep criminals behind bars and make communities safe again,” NRSC National Press Secretary Bernadette Breslin told The Daily Signal. 

“Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies are too dangerous for American families,” Breslin added.

In one such ad, a narrator highlights the administration’s work on crime before criticizing Cooper on issues of law enforcement.

“Thanks to Republicans, violent crime is at all-time lows, and American communities are safer,” the narrator begins.

“But Roy Cooper wants to turn back the clock and bring back Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer’s pro-crime agenda that vilifies law enforcement, denies them crucial resources, and prioritizes dangerous illegal immigrants,” the narrator adds. “Americans can’t afford another Democrat crime wave. Reject Roy Cooper and stop the anti-police agenda.”

The ad features news clips highlighting recent drops in violent crime and Senate Democrats’ opposition to renewing Department of Homeland Security funding.

The ads come as Republicans in the Senate are moving to provide funding to immigration enforcement agencies through a party-line budget bill after a monthslong shutdown of DHS. Democrats objected to providing funding to immigration enforcement agencies during the record-setting shutdown.

The Daily Signal reached out for comment from the candidates mentioned in the ads.

“While Roy spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars and securing raises for law enforcement and public safety officials, Michael Whatley spent his appointing a convicted child sex predator who served time in prison for multiple counts of felony child sex crimes to a powerful position within the North Carolina Republican Party,” a Cooper campaign spokesperson replied, referring to the Republican candidate for Senate in North Carolina.

The spokesperson was speaking of Harvey L. West Jr., a convicted sex offender who held positions in the North Carolina Republican Party at the same time as Whatley was its chairman.

In response to the Cooper campaign, Whatley told The Daily Signal in a statement, “Nineteen innocent North Carolinians are dead because Roy Cooper chose to let violent criminals walk free—including the brutal murderer of Iryna Zarutska. He won’t answer to the families. He won’t explain the releases. He didn’t even follow the law to notify victims.”

Whatley added, “This was a deliberate, reckless choice that prioritized violent criminals ahead of innocent North Carolinians. Roy Cooper failed at his most basic duty as governor, protecting the people of North Carolina, and families paid the price.”

A Peltola spokesperson also responded to The Daily Signal, rejecting the ad’s premise.

“This ad from D.C. political operatives is a lie—Mary has always stood up to her own party to crack down on violent crime and secure the southern border, and that’s what she’ll continue to do when she gets to the U.S. Senate,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson added, “Mary also called out Joe Biden for his failures at the southern border, and she voted for tougher enforcement and billions in funding for Border Patrol. In the Senate, Mary will work with anyone, including President [Donald] Trump, to bring down crime, secure the border, and keep Alaska safe.”

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FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce Tim Walberg has written a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stating that Walz’s office has failed to adequately comply with its investigation into alleged improper payments and misuse of federal taxpayer childcare funds under the Child Care Assistance Program.

The letter comes days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided over 20 daycares in Minnesota as part of the administration’s crackdown on taxpayer fraud.

“The Committee on Education and Workforce (Committee) is continuing its investigation of alleged improper payments to, or improper use of public funds by, child care providers through Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), under the authority of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (CCDBG),” the letter reads.

In the letter, the committee accuses Walz’s office of not cooperating with the committee’s investigation through its lack of responses and unexplained redactions. The committee, which began work in January, described the governor’s silence as “both unacceptable and impeding the Committee’s oversight and legislative efforts.”

“As you know, the Committee is charged with monitoring on a continuing basis the application, administration, execution, and effectiveness of federal laws and programs under its jurisdiction,” the letter continued. “Congressional oversight extends to implementation of CCDBG in Minnesota through the CCAP, the state program for carrying out childcare activities. The Committee’s review of alleged improper payments to or improper use of federal funds by childcare providers will help inform the Committee about the kinds of legislative changes to CCDBG that may be warranted.”

Although Minnesota produced nearly 38,000 pages in response to a Jan. 5 oversight request, the committee says fewer than 75 pages were meaningfully responsive.

More than 90% of the production consisted of repeatedly duplicated press releases and news articles unrelated to childcare funding, including materials about Walz’s decision not to seek reelection and gun control executive orders.

Some of the same press releases were submitted dozens of times, creating what the committee calls a misleading appearance of compliance.

The committee also criticizes Minnesota for asserting broad attorney‑client and work‑product privilege claims without identifying the specific basis for individual redactions, which in some cases obscure entire email bodies.

Congressional leaders emphasize that the House does not recognize non‑constitutional privileges as binding on oversight requests.

Citing these deficiencies, the committee reiterates and narrows its demands, ordering Minnesota to produce unredacted emails involving Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and senior staff that reference specific childcare centers under scrutiny, as well as records identifying providers that received more than $1 million in CCDF funds in a single fiscal year.

Flanagan, who is now running for U.S. Senate, was endorsed by embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Monday. Omar is the subject of a House Oversight Committee and potential House Ethics Committee probe over her recent rise in wealth and potential involvement in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal.

The committee says the information requested from Walz will inform proposed legislation aimed at strengthening anti‑fraud safeguards and protecting taxpayer dollars in federal childcare programs.