Number: 116-18
Date: July 14, 2020
Senate Passes S. 4104, the
“Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act”
On June 30, 2020, Senator Rand Paul introduced and the Senate passed S. 4104, the Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act without amendment by unanimous consent. The bill would, among other things, amend section 205(r) of the Social Security Act (Act) to permit the Social Security Administration (SSA) to share its full file of death information (including State death data) with the Department of Treasury for the purposes of operating its Do Not Pay (DNP) working system and administering its Economic Income Payments (EIPs). The bill now moves to the House for consideration.
S. 4104 includes the following provisions of interest to SSA:
Section 2. Distribution of Death Information
Would amend Section 205(r) of the Act (42 U.S. Code § 405(r)) as follows:
- Would require the Commissioner to reimburse States for the cost of transmitting death data and for ensuring the “completeness, timeliness and accuracy” of the data.
- Would require the Commissioner, to the extent feasible, to provide through a cooperative arrangement its complete file of death information to:
- Federal or State agencies providing federally funded benefits for purposes of preventing improper payments.
- Federal agencies for any of the following purposes:
- operating the DNP working system,
- tax administration duties,
- oversight activities of the inspector general; or
- civil or criminal enforcement activities authorized by law.
Sunset
Report to Congress on Alternative Sources of Death
- the accuracy and completeness of the data;
- the interoperability of the data;
- the accessibility of the data by Federal agencies;
- the cost to Federal agencies to access and maintain the data;
- the security of the data;
- the reliability of the data; and
- a comparison of the data to the death data distributed by SSA.
Section 3. Improving the Use of Data by Government Agencies to Curb Improper Payments
Section 4. Plan for Ensuring the Accuracy and Completeness of Death Data
- Procedures for:
- identifying individuals who are extremely elderly but for whom no record of death exists in SSA’s records;
- verifying the information of such individuals and correcting any inaccuracies; and
- disclosing corrections made to SSA’s death records where appropriate.
- Improved policies and procedures for identifying and correcting erroneous death records, including:
- identifying individuals listed as dead who are actually alive;
- identifying individuals listed as alive who are actually dead; and
- allowing individuals or survivors of deceased individuals to notify SSA of potential errors.
Section 5. Report on Information Security
- identifies all SSA information systems that contain sensitive information; and
- describes the measures SSA is taking to secure and protect such systems.
Section 6. Limited Access to Death Information Maintained by the SSA for Recovery of Erroneous Rebate Payments
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1For purposes of this paragraph, the terms retirement system and political subdivision have the meanings given such terms in section 218(b).
2The term “contract” and “cooperative arrangement” are defined for purposes of sections 31 U.S. Code § 6303 and 31 U.S. Code § 6305, respectively.
3These reimbursement requirements would also apply to State agencies issuing drivers’ licenses pursuant to Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 requirements in section 205(r)(8) of the Act.
4The terms “Indian tribe” and “tribal organization” have the same definitions given in 25 U.S. Code § 5304.
5This section would make explicit our authority to share the full file of death information with Treasury for purposes of administering EIPs; however, under current law, SSA already has such authority and provides the Internal Revenue Service the complete file.