Bustos Leads Bipartisan, Bicameral Plan To Curb Improper Payments To The Deceased

Press Release

Today, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17), leading a bipartisan group of Members in the House and Senate, introduced legislation that could help save millions of federal dollars by curbing erroneous payments to deceased individuals. Bustos was joined by Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) to introduce the House version of The Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act, and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) introduced the companion bill in the Senate.

The Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act would allow all federal agencies access to the Death Master File, the most complete information on who has died, maintained by the Social Security Administration. Currently, only a small number of federal agencies have access to this official list, and most federal agencies rely on a slimmed down, incomplete and less timely version of the file. In addition, most Inspectors General lack access to complete death information. As a result, many federal agencies make erroneous payments to people who are actually deceased.

For example, the Office of Personnel Management Inspector General reported just four years ago that $601 million in improper payments were made to federal retirees found to have died over the previous five years.

"It's unacceptable that the federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year in improper payments to deceased people," said Congresswoman Cheri Bustos. "I'm proud to join with my colleagues to introduce this common sense plan to save taxpayer money by giving agencies the tools they need to put an end to this outrageous waste."

"Every day, we have hard choices to make on how to spend limited taxpayer dollars," said Congressman Reid Ribble. "Not spending them on Social Security payments for people who have passed away is an easy choice. The Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased Individuals Act is a commonsense good government bill to help ensure that Social Security funds are spent only where they are needed."

"Year after year, we have heard about a fundamental set of problems with how government agencies keep track of deceased individuals," said Senator Tom Carper. "This legislation would take a number of common-sense steps to fix those problems and, in return, curb hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, in improper payments to people who are ineligible for federal benefits because they are dead. The legislation would also ensure more accurate death data collection and verification, and improve procedures for fixing the information of living beneficiaries who are mistakenly listed as dead. I look forward to working with Chairman Johnson, Representatives Bustos and Ribble, and our colleagues to advance this bill and prevent improper payments to dead people in the future."

"Social Security's death records are in disarray -- they show millions of people over 112 years of age as alive when they're actually dead," said Senator Ron Johnson. "They mistakenly mark tens of thousands of living people each year as dead when they are alive. By cleaning up Social Security's Death Master File and sharing it with other federal agencies, we can protect taxpayers and ensure their money isn't being wasted fraudulently on the deceased. Unfortunately, this problem has been highlighted for years and has not yet been addressed -- it is just another sign Washington's dysfunction. This legislation would cut off payments to the deceased and those fraudulently using their identity. It is common-sense legislation, and one step toward fixing Washington."