President Trump has signed a bill aimed at stopping some welfare fraud. Senator John Kennedy’s bill, Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act amends the Social Security Act to allow the Social Security Administration to share the Death Master File with the Treasury Department so they can discontinue payments to recipients who have passed away.
“We’re no longer paying dead people, and having their friends or relatives or whomever cash the checks,” Kennedy said.
Prior to a temporary law Kennedy authored, the Social Security Administration said they needed congressional approval to share the master file of names of deceased people with other agencies. This act makes permanent that temporary law that Kennedy says saved the federal government at least $330 Million in improper payments since December of 2023.
“It’s a long story, and it was frustrating, to provide for a temporary sharing. They wanted to try it out first. Well, it worked…Duh,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy says he has been working to prevent welfare fraud for years and cited the 2023 cost of sending the improper payments.
“Not million. Billion. The federal government sent $1.3 billion dollars to dead people,” Kennedy noted.