A new report from a government watchdog group reveals that improper payments by the federal government have risen under the Biden administration.

When the world shut down and the government stepped in during the coronavirus pandemic, some people tried to cheat the system and succeeded. “There were some in the United States and abroad who exploited the crisis to engage in benefit fraud, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.

The report highlights that pandemic-related fraud is just one aspect of the issue.

“Improper payments are made by the government, the federal government, to the wrong person or in the wrong amount or for the wrong reason,” Rachel O’Brien, deputy policy editor at Open The Books said.

Open The Books disclosed that $672 billion in improper payments occurred during the four years of the Trump administration, while $764 billion has been recorded under the Biden administration over three years. When adjusted for inflation, the Biden administration is on track to oversee $1 trillion in improper payments.

O’Brien noted: “$235 billion in the last fiscal year went to improper payments. That’s more than the entire budget of every state except for California. It’s almost half a million per minute.”

Despite a decrease in improper payments under Biden, administrations for decades have struggled to prevent such payments. These include millions paid to deceased individuals or those serving time in prison, billions in erroneous tax credits from the IRS, and hundreds of millions more to families claiming more children than they have.

“Your federal government has been spending taxpayer dollars like it was Monopoly money,” said Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican.

Critics say Congress could play a crucial role by enacting new laws to allocate more funding and resources to help agencies control improper payments. Many argue that such measures would save far more money in the long term, as the national debt sits at $35 trillion.