Sponsors (6)
The bill strengthens program integrity and reduces improper federal payments by sharing death records (saving taxpayers money and stopping duplicate payments) but raises privacy risks, risks of wrongful payment interruptions, ongoing state costs, and possible delays that may blunt some fraud-prevention gains.
Seniors and other federal beneficiaries will face fewer improper or duplicate payments and taxpayers will see improved recovery of overpayments because death records are shared with the Do Not Pay system to stop and recover improper payments.
States face reduced unexpected fiscal burden because cost-sharing for providing state death data is handled through an agreed methodology.
People wrongly flagged as deceased (including seniors and other benefit recipients) risk interruptions to payments and added administrative burdens until errors are corrected.
Sharing detailed death data with a federal system increases privacy and data-security risks for individuals if safeguards fail.
State governments may incur ongoing administrative costs to provide and maintain death data feeds, increasing state-level expenses.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Social Security Administration (SSA) to share death-related information, when feasible, with the federal Do Not Pay working system to help stop and recover improper payments to people who are deceased. It also raises the evidentiary standard SSA must meet before reporting someone as deceased in shared records (clear and convincing evidence) and expands error-notification rules so agencies with sharing agreements are notified if a person was incorrectly identified as dead. Changes take effect December 27, 2026.
Introduced January 28, 2025 by John Neely Kennedy · Last progress February 10, 2026