We recently looked at how deeply fraudsters tunneled into the government’s COVID relief programs, particularly in federally enhanced unemployment benefits and the Paycheck Protection Program. The losses are in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and the full amount stolen may never be known. We also examined the pathetic job that the government has been doing in terms of clawing that money back. But those weren’t the only programs being fleeced. Some of the COVID relief money found its way into the music and performing arts industries in a program called “Save Our Stages.” And it would appear that some of the beneficiaries really weren’t all that “needy” after all. This week, James Comer sent a letter to the Justice Department demanding an investigation into where the money all went and how much of it was taken by international organized crime outfits. (Sara Carter)

In a letter to the Justice Department, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer expressed concern over the stolen money that was intended to help families and businesses that suffered during the pandemic.

“It is highly concerning that possibly billions of taxpayer dollars intended to help Americans suffering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were stolen by organized criminal rings in foreign countries,” Comer wrote.

“Therefore, we write today to better understand the full scope of this problem and what actions the Department has taken to investigate international COVID-19 relief program fraud and hold these foreign actors accountable,” he added.

Comer went on to note that the government has thus far shoveled $4.6 trillion into various COVID relief programs. That’s more than the entire federal government spent in any single year prior to 2020. And hundreds of billions of dollars simply disappeared from those poorly guarded coffers, with little of it having been recovered.

The music industry angle is also both interesting and frustrating. As Joe Squire reports at Redstate, plenty of small, struggling music groups benefited from the aid program, which is great. But some far more well-known names may have been dipping into the pot as well.

Among those seeking more COVID relief funds? Some supposedly “independent” music venues that are members of a group called NIVA. According to New Music Express, having already secured a federal bailout earlier in the pandemic (a program called “Save Our Stages”) NIVA now “is lobbying for additional funds to deal with ‘inflation and worker shortages compounded by the fact that COVID is still ongoing.’” …

But while the group focuses press attention on struggling smaller artists and independent venues, like any good Beltway swamp advocacy group, NIVA appears to be a stealth operation for very, very well-heeled interests.

A prominent beneficiary of “Save Our Stages” was Dayna Frank, who is the President of NIVA. She’s such a big deal on the Minneapolis-St. Paul music scene that their local magazine dubbed her the “Queen of Clubs”. Frank is so politically well-connected, she was Sen. Klobuchar’s “Virtual Guest” at the 2022 State of the Union Address. No surprise Schumer is probably looking for extra taxpayer cash to throw her way, right? But the thing is, Frank has already had a ton of it, thanks to “Save Our Stages.” According to the Small Business Administration, which administered the program, she has had about $10 million of it. That’s right: $10 million.

Also on the list was Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Nirvana. It turns out that he is a board member of NIVA. To be clear, it’s not explicitly shown that Grohl directly and personally benefitted from the relief funds, as Joe points out. (And it would be hard to imagine him needing the cash, given his net worth of more than 330 million dollars.) But he was definitely one of the people steering where all of that money wound up.

I have been making the same point that Joe is driving home for a long time. These massive, multifaceted spending bills always turn out to be littered with favors for the politically well-connected and hidden pockets of cash that seem to simply disappear somehow. All of these major spending programs should be stripped out and voted on individually. That’s particularly true of both COVID relief and aid to Ukraine. If the spending is worthwhile and supported by the public, it should have no trouble passing. But if it’s obviously wasteful or even suspicious, each member of Congress needs to be forced to step up and put their name on the record as having either supported or opposed it. And then their opponents can bring that information to the voters during the next election cycle, allowing them to pass the final judgment.