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By: FEDweek StaffThe House Oversight and Reform Committee has passed S-375, to improve efforts to identify and reduce governmentwide improper payments and consolidate prior laws and guidance into one governing statute.
The bill, which has been approved by the full Senate, would order steps including: strengthening the definition of what is to be considered an improper payment; explicitly explaining all the factors agencies should consider when gauging susceptibility to improper payments; authorizing OMB to conduct pilot programs to test “potential accountability measures, incentives, and consequences for compliance and the elimination of improper payments”; broadens access by agencies to the SSA’s master file of deaths; and establishes a new working group that will enable agencies to collaborate with each other and non-federal partners such as state governments.
The committee also passed:
* HR-2575, to create center of excellence in GSA to “advise and promote” the use of artificial intelligence in the federal government and “improve cohesion and competency” in its use.
* HR-3830, to increase the disclosure of cost, performance, and areas of duplication among federal government and to create a federal program inventory.
* HR-3941, to establish a governmentwide program in GSA to provide a standardized approach to security assessment and authorization for cloud computing products and services that process unclassified information used by agencies.
* HR-5214, to make it a crime punishable by up to five years of prison for representative payees to embezzle federal retirement payments they manage on behalf of others or otherwise convert those payments to their own personal use.
