Sponsors (6)
The bill improves federal ability to stop improper payments and speeds correction of wrongly recorded deaths, but it increases data‑sharing that raises privacy risks and could temporarily disrupt benefits for wrongly flagged individuals while imposing modest costs on states.
Taxpayers and the federal government: The bill lets Social Security death data be shared with the Do Not Pay system so improper federal payments can be prevented and recovered more effectively.
Beneficiaries (including seniors and people with disabilities): Agencies must be notified when someone is incorrectly identified as deceased, enabling faster correction of benefits and records.
State governments: Establishes an explicit, reviewable cost‑sharing agreement for providing state death data to federal systems, clarifying how costs are allocated.
Wrongfully affected individuals (seniors, people with disabilities, beneficiaries): Even with a "clear and convincing" standard, incorrect death recordings could still occur and temporarily block benefits or services until corrected.
Individuals whose records are shared (including beneficiaries and taxpayers): Expanding death-data sharing to Do Not Pay systems increases the risk of privacy breaches or misuse of personal information.
State governments: States may incur additional costs to provide death data and carry out periodic reviews despite a required cost‑share methodology.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Social Security Commissioner to share death-reporting data with the Do Not Pay system (with safeguards and cost-sharing agreements), requires clear and convincing evidence before recording deaths, and expands correction notices.
Requires the Social Security Commissioner to share death-reporting information with the federal Do Not Pay working system, when feasible and subject to existing legal safeguards, to help prevent and recover improper payments to deceased people. It also bars the Commissioner from recording someone as deceased in these shared records unless there is clear and convincing evidence, and requires agencies that have data-sharing agreements to be notified if an individual was wrongly identified as deceased. The amendments take effect December 27, 2026.
Introduced January 28, 2025 by John Neely Kennedy · Last progress February 10, 2026