Congressman Greg Gianforte’s bipartisan bill, the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019, recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The measure will save significant taxpayer dollars by cutting down on government waste in the form of overpayments, underpayments, improperly documented payments, or payments made to ineligible recipients.
‘The time has come to end billions of dollars of improper government payments – payments to dead people and other folks who shouldn’t be getting a check from the federal government. This bipartisan bill ends that wasteful practice and is a win for hardworking Montana taxpayers,’ Gianforte said. ‘I’m proud to see this bill, which will protect taxpayers’ hard-earned money and prevent waste and fraud, head to President Trump’s desk.’
In FY2018 alone, the Government Accountability Office estimated that improper payments throughout the federal government totaled over $151 billion. Since 2003, when agencies were first directed to begin reporting improper payments, cumulative improper payment estimates across government have totaled over $1.4 trillion.
Specifically, the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019:
- Requires agencies to undertake additional efforts and develop plans to prevent improper payments before they happen.
- Improves the way agencies identify programs with the highest risk of improper payments.
- Requires the Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) to issue guidance to improve annual reporting on agencies’ compliance with improper payment statutes.
- Creates a working group that will enable federal agencies to collaborate with each other and non-federal, such as state governments, to develop strategies for addressing key drivers of improper payments, such as fraud and eligibility determinations in state-managed federal benefits programs.
Gianforte introduced the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 with U.S. Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), and Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) in December 2019.
