Federal Manager's Daily Report

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The Senate 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 now goes to the House, 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.

Meanwhile, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has approved:

* S-2177, to require the government to make public the details, costs, and assessments related to every federal program.

* S-2119, to bar agencies from paying bonuses to an employee for five years after the agency makes an “adverse finding” including a violation of a workplace policy for which the employee could be terminated or suspended for at least 14 days, or when an employee violates a law for which they could be imprisoned for more than a year.

* S-2183, to require GAO to analyze certain legislation in order to prevent duplication and overlap with existing federal programs, offices, and initiatives.

* HR-2590, which already has passed the House, to require DHS to create and submit to Congress a plan to improve the effectiveness of the overseas deployments of its personnel.