Bill to improve government’s anti-fraud checks heads to Trump’s desk

As the Trump administration continues to respond to a fraud scandal in Minnesota social services that’s raised attention to fraud in government programs overall, lawmakers passed a bipartisan proposal to improve a Treasury Department system meant to prevent government money from going to the wrong people.

The Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk following House passage of the measure on Monday. 

The Do Not Pay system, meant to help government programs verify eligibility before doling out taxpayers’ money, will have permanent access to the Social Security Administration's death records to prevent payments to deceased individuals, or fraudsters using their information, under the new law. 

Treasury’s temporary access to the death records was set to lapse at the end of the year, as Congress only provided the system with temporary access in a measure included in a fiscal year 2021 funding bill. 

Treasury has estimated that it could save over $215 million during the full three-year pilot alone. 

The Government Accountability Office, inspectors general and the Treasury Department itself have all asked lawmakers to give the anti-fraud system at Treasury permanent access to the Social Security death data to improve the Do Not Pay system. 

“Think of Treasury as America's bank. Across the country, certifying officers, grant managers, case workers are like bank tellers, responsible for ensuring payments go to eligible individuals and entities,” said Renata Miskell, deputy assistant secretary for accounting policy and financial transparency at Treasury's Bureau of Fiscal Service, at a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.

“Do Not Pay is a government-wide tool provided by Treasury for agencies and states operating federal programs to detect and prevent the leading causes of improper payments,” she told lawmakers. 

The change comes as more agencies are signing up to use the system.

Uptake among agencies has been a challenge historically, said Miskell. In FY24, only 4% of federal programs could access all available data. 

But by the end of the fiscal year, all federal programs are “on track to fully utilize Do Not Pay,” said Miskell, as required by a March executive order. The Office of Management and Budget released a memo in August meant to make it easier for agencies to sign on to the system. 

The lack of authority to access key federal databases to detect common drivers of fraud or improper payments — like identity, financial status and death — has also been a difficulty, said Miskell. 

Treasury has been working to add additional datasets to the system, including commercial ones, and update the system’s technological backbone. Congress could provide more help, in addition to the recently passed bill, by giving Treasury limited access to validate taxpayer identification numbers and income, which would help improve eligibility determination, said Miskell. 

Although the use of deceased individuals’ identities is one fraud vector used by bad actors to obtain government benefits, the passage of the law to give Treasury additional access comes almost a year after the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, made headlines for inaccurate claims that millions of impossibly elderly people were getting Social Security benefits. 

The agency’s own acting commissioner at the time issued a statement correcting the claims.

]]>