Overview
- Rep. Ro Khanna is urging a full independent audit of California’s budget, while Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team rejects claims of a broader scandal and says the governor takes fraud seriously.
- A U.S. Senate Finance Committee report found California’s EDD waived basic fraud‑prevention checks during the pandemic unemployment rollout, with outside analyses putting fraud far above early state estimates.
- The California State Auditor designated the Department of Social Services’ CalFresh program as high risk due to roughly a 10% payment error rate that could trigger about $2 billion in new annual state costs under recent federal rules.
- California’s 2024 Medi‑Cal expansion for undocumented adults far exceeded projections, with spending reported at $8.4 billion for the fiscal year and a freeze on new enrollments beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
- Costly programs continue to draw scrutiny for limited results, including years of homelessness spending with poor outcome metrics and a high‑speed rail project still unfinished and now projected to exceed $100 billion.