Requires federal agencies that use the Treasury disbursement system to collect, certify, and publicly post standardized information about each payment, verify that information annually, and identify payments that are exempt for sensitive operations in agency budget materials. Expands authorized federal access to several data sources (like the National Directory of New Hires, consumer and tax records, bank-account verification, and Social Security records) so Treasury and other agencies can better detect, prevent, and recover improper payments and support the Do Not Pay system.
Adds a new section 3337, "Mandatory reporting and verification of payment information," to Subchapter II of title 31, U.S. Code.
Defines the term "agency" to include executive agencies, independent regulatory agencies (as defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502), and entities that (i) are the Congress, (ii) are a U.S. court, (iii) are a territorial or possession government, or (iv) are the District of Columbia, if they use a Treasury disbursement system.
Defines "budget justification materials" by reference to the meaning given in section 3(b)(2)(A) of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101).
Defines "Secretary" to mean the Secretary of the Treasury.
Defines "sensitive operations" as agency operations related to domestic law enforcement or national security where disclosure under subsection (b) would (i) reasonably lead to death or serious bodily injury, or (ii) result in disclosure that is legally prohibited, classified, or exempt under 5 U.S.C. 552(b); and includes such operations carried out with State, local, or Tribal governments.
Who is affected and how:
Federal agencies and program offices: Directly affected. They must collect specified payment fields, certify accuracy, perform annual verification, post payment data publicly (with narrow exemptions), and include exempted payments in budget justification materials. This will increase reporting work, require IT changes, and may need new staff time or contracts to manage data-sharing and public posting.
Treasury Department and Do Not Pay/system integrity teams: Benefit from broader legal access to state and federal data sources and commercial verification tools, enabling stronger cross-checks to detect, prevent, and recover improper payments. They will lead system updates and coordinate with agencies on data use.
Recipients of federal payments (individuals, businesses, grantees): More likely to be screened before and after payments via checks of hire, tax, Social Security, and bank-account data. Legitimate recipients may face additional verification steps; some recipients may see faster prevention of erroneous payments but also possible delays if verification flags issues.
Financial institutions and payment processors: May be asked to participate in pre-payment bank-account verification and respond to requests tied to improper-payment prevention, creating operational interactions and possible compliance needs.
Privacy advocates and the public: Expanded data sharing and public posting of payment records raise privacy and confidentiality concerns, especially for individuals linked to sensitive operations. The bill attempts to limit public disclosure for sensitive cases, but trade-offs between transparency and privacy will be a key implementation issue.
Overall effects:
Net result: The legislation strengthens transparency and tools for preventing improper federal payments, while shifting implementation and privacy-management burdens to agencies, Treasury, and data partners.
Last progress June 9, 2025 (8 months ago)
Introduced on June 9, 2025 by Joni Ernst
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Updated 1 week ago
Last progress July 10, 2025 (7 months ago)
