McCaskill sez stop payments to the deceased

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill joined Democratic Senator Tom Carper of Delaware and Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana to introduce a bill that would help save millions of taxpayer dollars by curbing erroneous payments to deceased individuals. The bill would give agencies access to additional data and introduce new requirements for federal agencies in order to cut down on these payments.

“I think we can all agree that making payments to deceased people is an absurd example of poor oversight of federal spending,” said McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate’s top oversight committee. “I’m glad to join Republicans and Democrats alike so we can cut down on these wasteful payments and save Missourians’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”

The Social Security Administration maintains the most complete federal database of individuals who are reported to have died. However, only a small number of federal agencies have access to this official list, and most Inspectors General lack access to the complete death information. As a result, many agencies make erroneous payments to people who are actually deceased. McCaskill’s bill allows all appropriate federal agencies to have access to the complete death data and requires agencies make appropriate use of the data in order to curb improper payments.