[Senate Report 115-352]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 639
115th Congress } {
SENATE Report
2d Session } { 115-352
_______________________________________________________________________
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. 2374
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]
November 13, 2018.--Ordered to be printed
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
89-010 WASHINGTON : 2018
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
RAND PAUL, Kentucky HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota KAMALA D. HARRIS, California
STEVE DAINES, Montana DOUG JONES, Alabama
Christopher R. Hixon, Staff Director
Gabrielle D'Adamo Singer, Chief Counsel
Patrick J. Bailey, Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs
Margaret E. Daum, Minority Staff Director
Charles A. Moskowitz, Minority Senior Legislative Counsel
Katherine C. Sybenga, Minority Counsel
Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
Calendar No. 639
115th Congress } {
SENATE Report
2d Session } { 115-352
======================================================================
STOPPING IMPROPER PAYMENTS TO DECEASED
PEOPLE ACT
_______
November 13, 2018.--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. 2374]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 2374) 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 an
amendment (in the nature of a substitute) and recommends that
the bill, as amended, do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose and Summary.............................................1
II. Background and the Need for 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. 2374, the Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People
Act, 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 such death information with additional Federal
agencies for the purposes of preventing improper payments,
improving tax administration, aiding law enforcement, and for
other purposes.\1\
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\1\On June 29, 2015, the Committee approved S. 1073, the Stopping
Improper Payments to Deceased People Act. That bill is substantially
similar to S. 2374, which has been modified only slightly. Accordingly,
this committee report is in large part a reproduction of Chairman
Johnson's committee report for S. 1073, S. Rep. No. 114-249 (2015).
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II. Background and the Need for Legislation
S. 2374 is the result of years of congressional oversight
by the 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.\2\ The report identified over $1
billion paid to more than 250,000 deceased individuals in the
decade preceding the report.\3\ The report highlighted the
payment of farm subsidies, rental assistance, and stimulus
support to individuals who were deceased.\4\
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\2\Senator Tom Coburn, Federal Programs to Die For: American Tax
Dollars Sent Six Feet Under (Oct. 2010), available at https://
www.restoreaccountability.com/sites/restoreacc/uploads/documents/
library_docs/FINAL-Federal_Programs_To_Di_For.pdf.
\3\Id.
\4\Id.
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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-SSA
Commissioner 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.''\5\
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\5\Id. at 3.
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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.\6\ While 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.''\7\
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\6\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].
\7\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].
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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.\8\ Recognizing
the value of this authorization, SSA began contracting with
state vital records agencies to provide reports of death.\9\ To
incentivize faster reporting of deaths by states, SSA pays
these state agencies more based on the timeliness of their
reporting.\10\ Faster reports of death allow SSA to cease
benefit payments more quickly and in some cases help avoid
devoting agency resources to recouping overpayments from
grieving families.
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\8\42 U.S.C. Sec. 405(r).
\9\SSA Preliminary Observations at 3.
\10\Gov't Accountability Office, GAO-14-46: Social Security Death
Data: Additional Action Needed to Address Data Errors and Federal
Agency Access (2013), available at http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/
659289.pdf [hereinafter Social Security Death Data].
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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.\11\ 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.\12\ 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.\13\
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\11\Social Security Death Data at 10.
\12\Id. at 12.
\13\Id. at 10, 11.
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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.\14\
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.\15\ 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.\16\ 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).\17\
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\14\Id. at 5.
\15\Id. at 19.
\16\Id. at 21-22.
\17\Id. at 21.
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As a result of 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.\18\ Furthermore,
the DMF will contain fewer of the total deaths over time.\19\
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.\20\
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\18\Id. at 22.
\19\Id.
\20\Id.
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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.\21\ 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.\22\ 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,\23\ indicating that someone was attempting to obtain
employment using those numbers.
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\21\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).
\22\Id. 23
\23\Id. at 3.
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In addition to concerns over improper payments resulting
from an inaccurate DMF, the OIG raised concerns about SSA
mistakenly listing living individuals as deceased.\24\
According to SSA, there are nearly 1,000 living individuals
each month who are mistakenly listed as deceased in the
DMF.\25\ For some of these individuals, it is a relatively
simple error to correct. For others, however, the result can be
devastating.\26\
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\24\Id.
\25\Id.
\26\Examining Federal Improper Payments and Errors in the Death
Master File (statement of Judy Rivers).
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Problems persist despite continued oversight and
congressional interest, evidencing the need for legislation.
For example, the OIG reported again in August 2018 that it had
identified hundreds more SSA beneficiaries who received
benefits, despite Treasury Department records indicating they
were deceased.\27\
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\27\Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, A-
06-18-50568, Match of Treasury Death Information Against Social
Security Administration Records (2013), available at https://
oig.ssa.gov/sites/default/files/audit/full/pdf/A-06-18-50568.pdf.
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S. 2374 directs 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.
III. Legislative History
Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced S. 2374 on February 5,
2018. The bill was referred to the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs.
The Committee considered S. 2374 at a June 13, 2018,
business meeting. The Committee favorably reported the bill, as
amended by a substitute amendment, en bloc by voice vote.
Senators present for the vote were Johnson, Portman, Lankford,
Enzi, McCaskill, Carper, Peters, Hassan, Harris, and Jones.
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 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) oversight by inspectors general; (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 principle 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. It also
includes an effective date 180 days after enactment.
Subsection (c) requires the SSA Commissioner, in
consultation with the Treasury Secretary, 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 and to develop
a plan to assist states, local governments, and Indian tribes
in providing electronic death records to SSA within one year.
This section also requires a report to be submitted to
Congress within one year concerning 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 and would impose no costs on
state, local, or tribal governments.
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, July 16, 2018.
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. 2374, 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,
Director.
Enclosure.
S. 2374--Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act
S. 2374 would expand how data on deaths is used by federal
and state agencies for the purpose of limiting 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. 2374 would increase
discretionary costs by an insignificant amount. Enacting S.
2374 could reduce direct spending; therefore, pay-as-you-go
procedures apply. However, CBO estimates that such effects
would probably be insignificant. The bill would not affect
revenues.
CBO estimates that enacting S. 2374 would not increase net
direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029.
Under current law, SSA collects information on deaths and
maintains a record of all deaths reported to the agency dating
to 1936. SSA has almost 118 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 using the data; for example, preventing
fraud. The DMF, which has information on more than 96 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. 2374 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 file, rather than only
the DMF, available to 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 file
than occurs under current law. Those provisions would expire
five years after enactment of the bill. The bill would require
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 file, 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. 2374 would
reduce 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. However, under current law and OMB guidance,
agencies already are required to assess their programs for risk
and initiate program improvements to reduce and eliminate
payment errors. In addition, CBO expects that many options to
eliminate improper payments have been reviewed and analyzed by
OMB and agencies. Thus, CBO estimates that implementing those
provisions would increase agency administrative costs by an
insignificant amount.
S. 2374 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 reviewed by H. Samuel
Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows: (existing law
proposed to be omitted is enclosed in brackets, new matter is
printed in italic, and existing law in which no change is
proposed is shown in roman):
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
* * * * * * *
Sec. 3321. Disbursing authority in the executive branch
* * * * * * *
Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement
* * * * * * *
SEC. 1. SHORT TITLE.
* * * * * * *
SEC. 8. IMPROVING THE USE OF DATA BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES FOR CURBING
IMPROPER PAYMENTS.
(a) Guidance by the Office of Management and Budget.--
(1) Guidance to agencies.--Not later than 1 year
after the date of enactment of this section, 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 section referred to as
`death databases') would be relevant and necessary
regarding implementation of this section to provide
such agencies or components access to the death
databases no later than 1 year 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 section, the
Secretary of Health and Human Services and the
Secretary of the Treasury shall jointly 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.
(b) Reports.--
(1) Report to congress on improving data matching
regarding payments to deceased individuals.--Not later
than 1 year after the date of enactment of this
section, the Secretary of the Treasury, 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 section, and for each of the
4 succeeding years, the Secretary of the Treasury shall
submit to Congress a report regarding the
implementation of this section. The first report
submitted under this paragraph shall include the
recommendations of the Secretary required under
subsection (a)(2).
(c) 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) In the case of individuals with respect to
whom federally funded benefits are provided by (or
(through) a Federal or State agency, the Commissioner
of Social Security shall to the extent feasibly provide
such information through a cooperative arrangement with
such agency for ensuring proper payment of those
benefits with respect to such individuals if--
(i) under such arrangement the agency agrees
to such safeguards as the Commissioner
determines are necessary or appropriate to
protect the information from unauthorized us or
disclosure;
(ii) under such arrangement the agency
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
(iii) 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), (ii), and
(iii) 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) The tax administration duties of the
agency.
(iii) Oversight activities of the Inspector
General of an agency that is provided
information regarding all deceased individuals
pursuant to this subsection.
(iv) Civil or criminal enforcement activities
that are authorized by law.
(C) With respect to the reimbursement to the
Commissioner of Social Security for the reasonable cost
of carrying out a cooperative arrangement described in
subparagraph (A) between the Commissioner of Social
Security and an agency, the Commissioner shall--
(i) establish a defined calculation method
for purposes of calculating the reasonable cost
of carrying out the arrangement that does not
take into account any services, information, or
unrelated payments provided by the agency to
the Commissioner; and
(ii) reimbursement payments shall be
accounted for and recorded separately from
other transactions.
(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), (ii), and
(iii) 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 for statistical
purposes and research activities by Federal and State
agencies (including research activities conducted by
nongovernment researchers under a contract or a
cooperative arrangement (as such terms are defined for
purposes of sections 6303 and 6305, respectively, of
title 31, United States Code) with such and agency) if
the requirements of clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph
(3)(A) are met.
* * * * * * *
(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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