U.S. Republican Senator John Kennedy has joined Democratic Senator Tom Carper of Delaware in introducing the Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act. Kennedy says in 2015, the Social Security Administration made nearly ten-billion-dollars in improper payments.
Kennedy says that the Social Security Administration won't give lists of the deceased Americans to the Department of Treasury. This has resulted in the government "paying dead people."
After contacting the Social Security Administration as to why they couldn’t share their dead person’s database with the Treasury Department, Kennedy was told they didn’t have the legal authority to do so. Kennedy says this bill will allow them to trade that information, stopping the waste of billions of dollars.
"The federal bureaucracy borrows 1.4 billion dollars every day," says Kennedy.
Kennedy says he and his colleagues are very confident this bill will pass. After it becomes law, he says he will lead the effort in making those who work in the Social Security Administration and the Treasury Department are held accountable.