[Senate Report 114-249]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       Calendar No. 456
114th Congress     }                                      {      Report
                                 SENATE
                                                               
2d Session         }                                      {     114-249                                                                
 _______________________________________________________________________

                                     

                                                      


           STOPPING IMPROPER PAYMENTS TO DECEASED PEOPLE ACT

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 of the

                   COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND

                          GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                              to accompany

                                S. 1073

             TO AMEND THE IMPROPER PAYMENTS ELIMINATION AND
           RECOVERY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2012, INCLUDING MAKING
           CHANGES TO THE DO NOT PAY INITIATIVE, FOR IMPROVED
 DETECTION, PREVENTION, AND RECOVERY OF IMPROPER PAYMENTS TO DECEASED 
                  INDIVIDUALS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                  May 9, 2016.--Ordered to be printed
                                 ______

                         U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 

59-010                         WASHINGTON : 2016











        COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                    RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona                 THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio                    CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
RAND PAUL, Kentucky                  JON TESTER, Montana
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma             TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming             HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire          CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey
JONI ERNST, Iowa                     GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
BEN SASSE, Nebraska

                  Christopher R. Hixon, Staff Director
                Gabrielle D'Adamo Singer, Chief Counsel
       Patrick J. Bailey, Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs
              Gabrielle A. Batkin, Minority Staff Director
           John P. Kilvington, Minority Deputy Staff Director
               Mary Beth Schultz, Minority Chief Counsel
 Katherine C. Sybenga, Minority Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs
        Ellen W. Harrington, Minority Professional Staff Member
                    Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk












                                                       Calendar No. 456
114th Congress     }                                      {      Report
                                 SENATE
                                                               
2d Session         }                                      {     114-249
======================================================================
 
           STOPPING IMPROPER PAYMENTS TO DECEASED PEOPLE ACT

                                _______
                                

                  May 9, 2016.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Johnson, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
                    Affairs, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 1073]

    The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 1073) to amend the 
Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 
2012, including making changes to the Do Not Pay initiative, 
for improved detection, prevention, and recovery of improper 
payments to deceased individuals, and for other purposes, 
having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with 
amendments and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
  I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
 II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................4
 IV. Section-by-Section Analysis......................................5
  V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................6
 VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................6
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............8

                         I. Purpose and Summary

    S. 1073 seeks to reduce inadvertent and improper payments 
by Federal agencies to individuals who are deceased and to 
reduce the number of living people mistakenly listed as dead by 
the Federal Government. The bill accomplishes these goals by 
requiring the Social Security Administration (SSA) to develop a 
process to improve the accuracy of the death data it collects 
and by sharing that death information with additional federal 
agencies for the purposes of preventing improper payments, 
improving tax administration, aiding law enforcement, and for 
other purposes.

              II. Background and the Need for Legislation

    This legislation is the result of six years of 
congressional oversight by the Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs Committee into improper payments by the 
Federal Government to people who are deceased. The Committee's 
first investigation resulted in a report by the then-Ranking 
Member of the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, 
Senator Tom Coburn, titled Federal Programs to Die for: 
American Tax Dollars Sent Six Feet Under.\1\ The report 
identified over $1 billion paid out to more than 250,000 
deceased individuals in the decade preceding the report.\2\ The 
report highlighted farm subsidies, rental assistance, and 
stimulus checks to individuals who were deceased.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Senator Tom Coburn, Federal Programs to Die For: American Tax 
Dollars Sent Six Feet Under (Oct. 2010) (on file with Comm. staff).
    \2\Id.
    \3\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Of concern is the Federal Government's inability to ensure 
that all recipients of Federal funds are alive. The report by 
Senator Coburn noted a response to the Committee by then-
Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) 
Michael Astrue that ``it is extremely expensive and may even be 
impossible to determine if a person is alive or dead 
particularly if the person died many years ago.''\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\Id. at 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Committee hearings and continued oversight in both the 
113th and 114th congressional sessions have found that the 
death data available to Federal agencies is not always 
accurate, and that many agencies that provide Federal benefits 
do not have access to all of the information they need to 
prevent improper payments to deceased individuals.\5\ While the 
SSA maintains a file with the death reports it receives from 
family members, funeral homes, states, Federal agencies, postal 
authorities, and financial institutions, most Federal agencies 
do not have access to the complete death information and 
instead rely on a slimmed down, less complete, and less timely 
version of this file that is commonly referred to as the Death 
Master File.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\See, e.g., Curbing Federal Agency Waste and Fraud: New Steps to 
Strengthen the Integrity of Federal Payments: Hearing Before the S. 
Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 113th Cong. (2013); 
Examining Federal Improper Payments and Errors in the Death Master 
File: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental 
Affairs, 114th Cong. (2015) [hereinafter Examining Federal Improper 
Payments and Errors in the Death Master File].
    \6\Gov't Accountability Office, GAO-13-574T, Social Security 
Administration: Preliminary Observations on the Death Master File 2-3 
(2013), available at http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654411.pdf 
[hereinafter, SSA Preliminary Observations].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    SSA became the Federal clearinghouse for death data 
following a 1983 amendment to the Social Security Act 
authorizing the agency to collect and pay for death information 
from individual state vital records agencies.\7\ Recognizing 
the value of this authorization, SSA began contracting with 
state vital records agencies to provide reports of death.\8\ To 
incentivize faster death reports, SSA pays these state agencies 
more based on the timeliness of their reporting.\9\ Faster 
reports of death allow SSA to cut off benefits payments more 
quickly and in some cases help avoid devoting agency resources 
to recouping overpayments from grieving families.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\42 U.S.C. Sec. 405(r).
    \8\SSA Preliminary Observations at 3.
    \9\Gov't Accountability Office, GAO-14-46: Social Security Death 
Data: Additional Action Needed to Address Data Errors and Federal 
Agency Access 7 (2013), available at http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/
659289.pdf [hereinafter Social Security Death Data].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    When SSA receives a death report from a state vital record 
agency, it does not verify the report prior to entering it into 
the death data.\10\ This is because states that participate in 
the electronic death registry program submit their reports over 
the Internet, and reports cannot be filed unless the fields are 
an exact match.\11\ Therefore, these death reports are 
considered the most accurate and are unlikely to contain basic 
keystroke errors. If SSA receives a death report from a funeral 
home or family member, the agency enters the information 
manually and only verifies the death report if the individual 
was receiving benefits from SSA.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\Social Security Death Data at 10.
    \11\Id. at 12.
    \12\Id. at 10, 11.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The increased reliance on death data provided by the states 
through electronic death registry has resulted in improvements 
in SSA's death data, making it more valuable for SSA and other 
Federal agencies that are able to utilize this information to 
prevent payments to deceased people in their own programs.\13\ 
However, the law that authorized SSA to contract with the state 
agencies for the death reports only allowed SSA to share such 
information for the purpose of ensuring proper payments of 
benefits.\14\ This is why SSA creates two versions of the death 
data: one complete list that is provided to agencies considered 
to be benefit-paying agencies, and one partial list, the DMF, 
that does not contain the data from the state vital records 
agencies.\15\ The DMF is then sold to eligible private sector 
entities and other government agencies by the Department of 
Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS).\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\Id. at 5.
    \14\Id. at 19.
    \15\Id. at 21-22.
    \16\Id. at 21.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    As a result of the SSA's interpretation of which agencies 
are ``benefit-paying'' and which are not, some Federal agencies 
purchase a version of the death data from NTIS that is 
incomplete and more likely to be inaccurate than the complete 
death data provided to other Federal agencies.\17\ Furthermore, 
the DMF will contain fewer of the total deaths over time.\18\ 
As states and jurisdictions increasingly adopt electronic 
processes for providing the death reports to SSA, the state-
provided death reports will become a larger percentage of the 
overall death reports received by SSA.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \17\Id. at 22.
    \18\Id.
    \19\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Accuracy problems with the DMF have real-world 
consequences. For example, the SSA Office of Inspector General 
(OIG) found that SSA mistakenly listed 6.5 million holders of 
Social Security Numbers (SSNs) as alive who were older than 112 
years old, despite the fact that there was only one known 
living person of that age in the United States at that 
time.\20\ The OIG did not conduct an extensive investigation 
into the potential misuse of all of these 6.5 million SSNs, but 
did find that over a five-year period, $3.1 billion in earnings 
were reported under approximately 67,000 of the SSNs.\21\ The 
OIG also found that over a three-year period, there were 
approximately 4,000 E-Verify inquiries submitted to SSA through 
the Department of Homeland Security for SSNs of individuals 
over 112,\22\ indicating that someone was attempting to obtain 
employment using those numbers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\Examining Federal Improper Payments and Errors in the Death 
Master File at 2 (statement of the Honorable Patrick P. O'Carroll, Jr., 
Inspector General, U.S. Social Security Administration).
    \21\Id.
    \22\Id. at 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In addition to concerns over improper payments resulting 
from an inaccurate DMF, the OIG raised concerns about SSA 
mistakenly listing living individuals as deceased.\23\ 
According to SSA, there are nearly 1,000 living individuals 
each month who are mistakenly listed as deceased in the 
DMF.\24\ For some of these individuals, it is a relatively 
simple error to correct. For others, however, the result can be 
devastating.\25\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \23\Id.
    \24\Id.
    \25\Examining Federal Improper Payments and Errors in the Death 
Master File (statement of Judy Rivers).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    S. 1073 directs the SSA to share the most complete death 
data with the Department of the Treasury's Do Not Pay system 
and all Federal agencies for the purposes of preventing 
improper payments, aiding law enforcement, and improving tax 
administration and collection. This requirement will end five 
years after the bill is enacted to allow Congress to reassess 
whether there is an alternative source of death data for 
Federal agencies. The legislation also requires that SSA 
develop a plan to improve the accuracy and completeness of the 
death data it collects and improves the use of death data by 
government agencies.
    S. 1073 builds on recently enacted improper payments laws, 
including the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 
2010 (P.L. 111-204), the Improper Payments Elimination and 
Recovery Improvement Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-248), and S. 1360, 
the Improper Payments Agency Cooperation Enhancement Act of 
2013, introduced by Senators Carper, Coburn, Ayotte, Johnson, 
McCaskill, and Tester and passed by the Senate in the 113th 
Congress.

                        III. Legislative History

    Ranking Member Carper introduced S. 1073 with Chairman 
Johnson and Senators Mark Warner, Daniel Coats, and Cory Booker 
on April 23, 2015, and the bill was referred to the Committee. 
Senators Claire McCaskill, Thom Tillis, and Tammy Baldwin 
joined as cosponsors on May 4, June 3, and July 28, 2015, 
respectively.
    The Committee considered S. 1073 at a business meeting on 
July 29, 2015. During the business meeting, an amendment by 
Senators Johnson and Carper, and an amendment by Senator Ben 
Sasse related to information security were offered. The 
legislation, as modified by the two amendments, passed by voice 
vote en bloc with Senators Johnson, Portman, Lankford, Ernst, 
Sasse, Carper, Baldwin, Heitkamp, and Peters present for the 
votes.
    Consistent with the Committee's order on technical and 
conforming changes at the meeting, the Committee reports the 
bill with a technical amendment by mutual agreement of the full 
Committee majority and minority staff.

        IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported


Section 1. Short title

    This section establishes the short title of the bill as the 
``Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act.''

Section 2. Distribution of death information furnished to or maintained 
        by the Social Security Administration

    Subsection (a) amends Section 205(r) of the Social Security 
Act to require, rather than allow, SSA to compensate states for 
the provision of death information, and makes ensuring the 
completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of the death data a 
reason for the compensation.
    Subsection (a) strikes paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) of 
section 205(r) of the Social Security Act and reauthorizes 
these authorities with some technical drafting changes in new 
subsections (3)(A), (4), and (5). Subsection (a) also requires 
the Commissioner of Social Security, to the extent feasible, to 
provide for the use of information regarding all deceased 
individuals furnished to or maintained by the SSA through a 
cooperative arrangement in order for a Federal agency to carry 
out any of the following purposes: (1) operating the Do Not Pay 
working system; (2) to ensure proper payments under a Federal 
program or the proper payments of federal funded benefits; (3) 
to carry out tax administration or debt collection duties of 
the agency; or (4) for use by any policing agency of the 
federal government with the principal function of prevention, 
detection, or investigation of crime or apprehension of 
offenders. The agreements will require agencies to reimburse 
SSA for the reasonable cost of providing such information. 
Subsection (a) also provides that the amendments made by this 
subsection are repealed five years after the date of enactment.
    Subsection (b) amends section 6103(d)(4) of the Internal 
Revenue Code to require States to have an agreement in place 
with the Commissioner of Social Security, instead of the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services, in order to receive 
certain Federal tax return information. Current law already 
requires states to have an agreement with the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services to receive certain federal tax 
information. Subsection (b) changes current law so that the 
agreement would be made with the Commissioner of Social 
Security, instead of the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services, and would allow the Commissioner of Social Security 
to share the state provided death information for the 
additional purposes in subsection (a) of this bill.
    Subsection (c) requires the Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget to provide to Congress a report with the 
results of a review of potential alternative sources of death 
data maintained by nonfederal sources, including sources 
maintained by State agencies for the use by Federal agencies 
and partners. The report should include a recommendation 
regarding whether to extend the agency access to the death data 
provided by SSA under this bill.

Section 3. Improving the use of death data by government agencies to 
        curb improper payments

    This section creates a new section in the Improper Payments 
Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012 that requires 
the Office of Management and Budget to provide guidance to 
Federal agencies regarding the use of death data within six 
months, and to develop a plan within one year to assist states, 
local governments, and Indian tribes in providing electronic 
death records to SSA.
    This section also requires a report to Congress within 270 
days after enactment on how States, local governments, and 
Indian tribes will improve data matching with the Federal 
Government with respect to the death of individuals.

Section 4. Plan for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of death 
        data maintained by the Social Security Administration

    This section requires the Commissioner of SSA to submit a 
plan to Congress within one year of enactment to improve the 
accuracy and completeness of death data maintained and 
distributed by SSA. The plan must include a procedure for 
identifying individuals who are listed as alive but older than 
the oldest known living person in SSA records, improved 
procedures for identifying and correcting erroneous records, 
and a process for employing statistical analysis of the death 
data to determine and estimate the number of erroneous records.

Section 5. Report on information security

    This section requires the Commissioner of SSA to report to 
Congress on information security within 90 days of enactment.

                   V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact

    Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule 
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has 
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined 
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning 
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional 
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no 
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the 
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs 
on state, local, or tribal governments.

             VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate

                                                 February 17, 2016.
Hon. Ron Johnson,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. 
        Senate, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 1073, the Stopping 
Improper Payments to Deceased People Act.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contacts are Noah 
Meyerson and Matt Pickford.
            Sincerely,
                                                        Keith Hall.
    Enclosure.

S. 1073--Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act

    S. 1073 would expand the use of data on deaths by federal 
and state agencies to limit improper federal payments. The bill 
would require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to share 
all such information with more agencies and for a broader range 
of purposes.
    CBO estimates that implementing S. 1073 would have an 
insignificant net effect on discretionary spending. Because 
enacting S. 1073 could reduce direct spending, pay-as-you-go 
procedures apply. However, CBO estimates that such effects 
would probably be insignificant for each year over the next 10 
years. The bill would not affect revenues. CBO estimates that 
enacting S. 1073 would not increase net direct spending or on-
budget deficits by more than $5 billion in any of the four 
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.
    Under current law, the Social Security Administration 
collects information on deaths and maintains a record of all 
deaths reported to the agency dating to 1936. SSA has about 105 
million death records, which include the deceased person's 
name, social security number, date of birth, and date of death. 
SSA uses those data to administer its own programs and shares 
the information with other agencies that administer federal 
benefit programs.
    SSA provides the entire death file to some federal 
agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service. SSA also has 
agreements with other agencies, such as state agencies 
administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, so 
that those agencies can periodically verify that program 
applicants and recipients are not included in those death 
records. The Department of Commerce makes the Death Master File 
(DMF), a subset of those data, available to nongovernmental 
organizations after the department certifies that they have a 
legitimate purpose for use of the data, for example to prevent 
fraud. The DMF, which has information on about 90 million 
deceased individuals, excludes death data reported by states, 
because SSA may share data on deaths reported by states only in 
limited circumstances, such as to agencies that pay federal 
benefits. (A subset of the DMF, which is available to the 
general public through the Department of Commerce, excludes 
both death data reported by states and data on deaths within 
the past three years.)
    S. 1073 would require SSA to share its complete death 
records with more agencies and for a broader range of purposes. 
It also would make the complete death records, rather than only 
the DMF, part of the Do Not Pay program--a program administered 
by the Department of the Treasury that allows agencies to check 
various databases before making payments in order to identify 
ineligible recipients. Hence, there would likely be more 
frequent checks against the more complete death records than 
occur under current law. Those provisions would expire five 
years after enactment of the bill. The bill requires the 
director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to 
recommend, within four years of enactment, whether to extend 
the broader data access.
    The expanded availability of information on deaths would 
probably reduce the amount of mistaken payments. However, large 
benefit-paying agencies generally already use the complete 
death records, so CBO expects that enacting the bill would not 
reduce the number of payments to deceased people by a 
significant amount. In addition, the Department of the Treasury 
has mechanisms to recover improper payments that are identified 
at a later time, so many such payments are already recovered. 
For those reasons, CBO estimates that enacting S. 1073 would 
decrease direct spending by an insignificant amount.
    The bill also would require the director of OMB to review 
alternative sources of death data and report its findings to 
the Congress, to provide guidance to relevant agencies on how 
to access death data, and to develop a plan to assist state and 
local governments in providing death data to the federal 
government. CBO estimates that implementing those provisions 
would increase agency administrative costs by an insignificant 
amount.
    S. 1073 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and 
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
    The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Noah Meyerson 
and Matthew Pickford. The estimate was approved by H. Samuel 
Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

       VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported


UNITED STATES CODE

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


TITLE 26--THE INTERNAL REVENUE CODE

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


Subtitle F--Procedure and Administration

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


CHAPTER 61--INFORMATION AND RETURNS

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *



Subchapter B--Miscellaneous Provisions

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *



SEC. 6103. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLOSURE OF RETURNS AND RETURN 
                    INFORMATION.

    (a) * * *

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

    (d) Disclosure to State Tax Officials and State and Local 
Law Enforcement Agencies.--
          (1) * * *

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

          (4)
                  (A) In general.--No returns or return 
                information may be disclosed under paragraph 
                (1) to any agency, body, or commission of any 
                State (or any legal representative thereof) 
                during any period during which a contract 
                meeting the requirements of subparagraph (B) is 
                not in effect between such State and the 
                [Secretary of Health and Human Services] 
                Commissioner of Social Security.
                  (B) Contractual requirements.--A contract 
                meets the requirements of this subparagraph 
                if--
                          (i) such contract requires the State 
                        to furnish the [Secretary of Health and 
                        Human Services] Commissioner of Social 
                        Security information concerning 
                        individuals with respect to whom death 
                        certificates (or equivalent documents 
                        maintained by the State or any 
                        subdivision thereof) have been 
                        officially filed with it, and
                          (ii) such contract does not include 
                        any restriction on the use of 
                        information obtained by [such Secretary 
                        pursuant to such contract, except that 
                        such contract may provide that such 
                        information is only to be used by the 
                        Secretary (or any other Federal agency) 
                        for purposes of ensuring that Federal 
                        benefits or other payments are not 
                        erroneously paid to deceased 
                        individuals] such Commissioner pursuant 
                        to such contract, except that such 
                        contract may provide that such 
                        information is only to be used by the 
                        Social Security Administration (or any 
                        other Federal agency) for purposes 
                        authorized in the Social Security Act 
                        or this title.
                Any information obtained by the [Secretary of 
                Health and Human Services] Commissioner of 
                Social Security under such a contract shall be 
                exempt from disclosure under section 552 of 
                title 5, United States Code, and from the 
                requirements of section 552a of such title 5.

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


TITLE 31--MONEY AND FINANCE

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


Section. 3321. Disbursing authority in the executive branch

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *



Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *



SEC. 7. IMPROVING THE USE OF DATA BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES FOR CURBING 
                    IMPROPER PAYMENTS.

    (a) * * *
    (b) * * *
    (c) Guidance to Agencies Regarding Data Matching With Death 
Databases.--
          (1) Guidance to agencies.--Not later than 6 months 
        after the date of enactment of this subsection, and in 
        consultation with the Council of Inspectors General on 
        Integrity and Efficiency and the heads of other 
        relevant Federal, State, and local agencies, and Indian 
        tribes and tribal organizations, the Director of the 
        Office of Management and Budget shall issue guidance 
        for each agency or component of an agency that operates 
        or maintains a database of information relating to 
        beneficiaries, annuity recipients, or any purpose 
        described in section 205(r)(3)(B) of the Social 
        Security Act (42 U.S.C. 405(r)(3)(B)) for which 
        improved data matching with databases relating to the 
        death of an individual (in this subsection referred to 
        as ``death databases'') would be relevant and necessary 
        regarding implementation of this subsection to provide 
        such agencies or components access to the death 
        databases no later than 6 months after such date of 
        enactment.
          (2) Plan to assist states and local agencies and 
        indian tribes and tribal organizations.--Not later than 
        1 year after the date of enactment of this subsection, 
        the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
        shall develop a plan to assist States and local 
        agencies, and Indian tribes and tribal organizations, 
        in providing electronically to the Federal Government 
        records relating to the death of individuals, which may 
        include recommendations to Congress for any statutory 
        changes or financial assistance to States and local 
        agencies and Indian tribes and tribal organizations 
        that are necessary to ensure States and local agencies 
        and Indian tribes and tribal organizations can provide 
        such records electronically. The plan may include 
        recommendations for the authorization of appropriations 
        or other funding to carry out the plan.
    (d) Reports.--
          (1) Report to congress on improving data matching 
        regarding payments to deceased individuals.--Not later 
        than 270 days after the date of enactment of this 
        subsection, the Director of the Office of Management 
        and Budget, in consultation with the heads of other 
        relevant federal agencies, and in consultation with 
        States and local agencies, Indian tribes and tribal 
        organizations, shall submit to Congress a plan to 
        improve how States and local agencies and Indian tribes 
        and tribal organizations that provide benefits under a 
        federally funded program will improve data matching 
        with the Federal Government with respect to the death 
        of individuals who are recipients of such benefits.
          (2) Annual report.--Not later than 1 year after the 
        date of enactment of this subsection, and for each of 
        the 4 succeeding years, the Director of the Office of 
        Management and Budget shall submit to Congress a report 
        regarding the implementation of this subsection (c) and 
        paragraph (1). The first report submitted under this 
        paragraph shall include the recommendations of the 
        Director required under subsection (c)(2).
    (e) Definitions.--In this section, the terms ``Indian 
tribe'' and ``tribal organization'' have the meanings given 
those terms in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and 
Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450b).

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


TITLE 42--THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


CHAPTER 7--SOCIAL SECURITY

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *



  Subchapter II--Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance 
Benefits

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *



SEC. 405. EVIDENCE, PROCEDURE, AND CERTIFICATION FOR PAYMENTS.

    (a) * * *

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

    (r)
          (1) * * *
          (2) Each State (or political subdivision thereof) 
        which furnishes the Commissioner of Social Security 
        with information on records of deaths in the State or 
        subdivision under this subsection [may] shall be paid 
        by the Commissioner of Social Security from amounts 
        available for administration of this chapter the 
        reasonable costs (established by the Commissioner of 
        Social Security in consultations with the States) for 
        transcribing and transmitting, and to ensure the 
        completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of such 
        information to the Commissioner of Social Security.
          [(3) In the case of individuals with respect to whom 
        federally funded benefits are provided by (or through) 
        a Federal or State agency other than under this 
        chapter, the Commissioner of Social Security shall to 
        the extent feasible provide such information through a 
        cooperative arrangement with such agency, for ensuring 
        proper payment of those benefits with respect to such 
        individuals if--
                  [(A) under such arrangement the agency 
                provides reimbursement to the Commissioner of 
                Social Security for the reasonable cost of 
                carrying out such arrangement, and
                  [(B) such arrangement does not conflict with 
                the duties of the Commissioner of Social 
                Security under paragraph (1).
          [(4) The Commissioner of Social Security may enter 
        into similar agreements with States to provide 
        information for their use in programs wholly funded by 
        the States if the requirements of subparagraphs (A) and 
        (B) of paragraph (3) are met.
          [(5) The Commissioner of Social Security may use or 
        provide for the use of such records as may be corrected 
        under this section, subject to such safeguards as the 
        Commissioner of Social Security determines are 
        necessary or appropriate to protect the information 
        from unauthorized use or disclosure, for statistical 
        and research activities conducted by Federal and State 
        agencies.]
          (3)
                  (A) The Commissioner of Social Security 
                shall, to the extent feasible, provide for the 
                use of information regarding all deceased 
                individuals furnished to or maintained by the 
                Commissioner under this subsection in 
                accordance with subparagraph (B), subject to 
                such safeguards as the Commissioner of Social 
                Security determines are necessary or 
                appropriate to protect the information from 
                unauthorized use or disclosure, by any Federal 
                or State agency providing federally funded 
                benefits or administering a Federal program for 
                such benefits, including the agency operating 
                the Do Not Pay working system for ensuring 
                proper payment of those benefits, through a 
                cooperative arrangement with the agency (that 
                includes the agency's Inspector General) or 
                with an agency's Inspector General, if--
                          (i) under such arrangement the agency 
                        (including, if applicable, the agency's 
                        Inspector General) provides 
                        reimbursement to the Commissioner of 
                        Social Security for the reasonable cost 
                        of carrying out such arrangement, 
                        including the reasonable costs 
                        associated with the collection and 
                        maintenance of information regarding 
                        deceased individuals furnished to the 
                        Commissioner pursuant to paragraph (1), 
                        and
                          (ii) such arrangement does not 
                        conflict with the duties of the 
                        Commissioner of Social Security under 
                        paragraph (1).
                  (B) The Commissioner of Social Security 
                shall, to the extent feasible, provide for the 
                use of information regarding all deceased 
                individuals furnished to or maintained by the 
                Commissioner under this subsection, through a 
                cooperative arrangement in order for a Federal 
                agency to carry out any of the following 
                purposes, if the requirements of clauses (i) 
                and (ii) of subparagraph (A) are met:
                          (i) Operating the Do Not Pay working 
                        system established by section 5 of the 
                        Improper Payments Elimination and 
                        Recovery Improvement Act of 2012. Under 
                        such arrangement, the agency operating 
                        the working system may compare death 
                        information disclosed by the 
                        Commissioner with personally 
                        identifiable information reviewed 
                        through the working system, and may 
                        redisclose such comparison of 
                        information, as appropriate, to any 
                        Federal or State agency authorized to 
                        use the working system.
                          (ii) To ensure proper payments under 
                        a Federal program or the proper payment 
                        of federally funded benefits, including 
                        for purposes of payment certification, 
                        payment disbursement, and the 
                        prevention, identification, or 
                        recoupment of improper payments.
                          (iii) To carry out tax administration 
                        or debt collection duties of the 
                        agency.
                          (iv) For use by any policing agency 
                        of the Federal Government with the 
                        principle function of prevention, 
                        detection, or investigation of crime or 
                        the apprehension of alleged offenders.
          (4) The Commissioner of Social Security may enter 
        into similar arrangements with States to provide 
        information regarding all deceased individuals 
        furnished to or maintained by the Commissioner under 
        this subsection, for any of the purposes specified in 
        paragraph (3)(B), for use by States in programs wholly 
        funded by the States, or for use in the administration 
        of a benefit pension plan or retirement system for 
        employees of a State or a political subdivision 
        thereof, if the requirements of clauses (i) and (ii) of 
        paragraph (3)(A) are met. For purposes of this 
        paragraph, the terms ``retirement system'' and 
        ``political subdivision'' have the meanings given such 
        terms in section 218(b).
          (5) The Commissioner of Social Security may use or 
        provide for the use of information regarding all 
        deceased individuals furnished to or maintained by the 
        Commissioner under this subsection, subject to such 
        safeguards as the Commissioner of Social Security 
        determines are necessary or appropriate to protect the 
        information from unauthorized use or disclosure, for 
        statistical purposes and research activities by Federal 
        and State agencies if the requirements of clauses (i) 
        and (ii) of paragraph (3)(A) are met. For purposes of 
        this paragraph, the term ``statistical purposes'' has 
        the meaning given that term in section 502 of the 
        Confidential Information Protection and Statistical 
        Efficiency Act of 2002.

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          (8)
                  (A) The Commissioner of Social Security 
                shall, upon the request of the official 
                responsible for a State driver's license agency 
                pursuant to the Help America Vote Act of 2002--
                          (i) enter into an agreement with such 
                        official for the purpose of verifying 
                        applicable information, so long as the 
                        requirements of [subparagraphs (A) and 
                        (B) of paragraph (3)] clauses (i) and 
                        (ii) of paragraph (3)(A) are met; and
                          (ii) include in such agreement 
                        safeguards to assure the maintenance of 
                        the confidentiality of any applicable 
                        information disclosed and procedures to 
                        permit such agency to use the 
                        applicable information for the purpose 
                        of maintaining its records.

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