President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance announced a new $25 million federal program on Tuesday that pays cash to Americans whose tips help uncover fraud in taxpayer-funded programs. Under the Justice Department's published rules for the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, or WHIP, tipsters can receive $10,000 to $30,000 for information that leads to criminal charges, with payment coming once charges are filed rather than after a case is resolved, according to CBS News.
The program covers federal health care offenses and fraud involving programs run by the Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Veterans Affairs and War departments and the Small Business Administration, with priority for hospice, home health care, day care and special services fraud. Tips go through a federal reporting website, awards are made at the department's "sole discretion," and the Treasury Department is committing $25 million to fund it.
In the Oval Office, Trump described the payout differently, as a "1 percent commission" on fraud a tip helps uncover, saying he would personally settle competing claims: "I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions. It'll be a binding arbitration." The department's announcement mentions no percentage commission and no role for the president in reward disputes. Vance, who chairs the fraud task force Trump created in March, said the plan would not be limited to criminal prosecutions. During the announcement, Trump presented independent journalist Nick Shirley with a $10,000 check for his investigations of alleged fraud at Minnesota daycare facilities.