Project Match

Project Match

Project Match was a 1979 attempt by the Federal government to find welfare fraud by cross-checking the names in computers with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare against lists of current Federal employees. A similar project, Project Integrity, would examine similar lists of names to look for Medicaid fraud.

Relevance

In 1979, Reagan did one of his Radio Commentaries about the 1977 announcement of Project Match and a small-scale experiment (cross-referencing HEW employees in the D.C. area against the welfare recipients) that was run before doing a full check and the results of that experiment. This broadcast is labeled with production number 79-10-B6.

Reagan believed the experiment to be a bust, costing more than it was worth. 15 people were found and none served any kind of jail time. Only $2000 was recovered. One woman had her career destroyed.