The Senate has passed S-614, the Improper Payments Coordination Act, designed to reduce improper payments by extending access to the Do Not Pay initiative to the judicial and legislative branches of the federal government, as well as the state government agencies that manage federal funds.
The legislation also requires the State and Defense to report death data to other agencies to prevent improper payments to deceased individuals. Additionally, the bill requires OMB to issue guidance clarifying rules and procedures for agencies to share information.
It further seeks to expand and improve the use of data analytics by federal agencies for federal-wide waste and fraud reviews.
According to a committee report on the bill: “As part of the Do Not Pay initiative, the Department of Treasury established a center within the department to identify payments that are improper or potentially fraudulent. This analysis involves payments across a wide range of federal agencies and programs. However, the roles and responsibilities of the analysis center are not well-defined. For example, the center’s interaction with similar efforts by federal agency inspectors general is not yet defined, and there is no timetable for the continuing development of the center. Therefore, the bill requires the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare a report describing data analytics performed, the metrics used in determining whether these analytics help reduce improper payments, and target dates for implementing the data analytics operations performed as part of the Do Not Pay initiative.”
A companion bill has cleared the House committee level.
