Sponsors
The bill centralizes and strengthens oversight to reduce improper federal payments and increase transparency, but does so at the cost of added administrative expense, greater federal control and enforcement penalties, increased burden on agencies and states, and the risk of harming vulnerable beneficiaries through stricter recovery and compliance measures.
Taxpayers: fewer improper federal payments and greater recovery of misspent funds due to stronger oversight, earlier detection, and mandated reduction plans.
Federal agencies and the public: stronger, centralized accountability and transparency through a dedicated office, annual reporting, and required improper-payment reduction elements in financial management plans.
Taxpayers and program administrators: earlier identification and monitoring of new large programs (over $100M) reduces the risk of large-scale improper payments when programs are stood up.
Taxpayers and agencies: creation of a new executive-branch office and position plus new compliance requirements will raise administrative costs borne by taxpayers and federal agencies.
State governments and local services: states that fail to adopt required payment-integrity tools may face large repayment liabilities to the Treasury and reduced flexibility in program administration.
Federal agencies and program recipients: the long-term reporting, new tools, and annual fraud-management requirements create substantial compliance burden that can divert staff and resources away from program delivery.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Establishes an Overpayment Czar at OMB, tightens program risk screening and reporting (including for new/$100M+ programs), and penalizes persistent agency noncompliance.
Introduced February 24, 2025 by Dan Meuser · Last progress February 24, 2025
Creates a new senior official—called the Director of Improper Payment Mitigation or "Overpayment Czar"—within OMB to lead efforts to identify, prevent, and reduce improper federal payments and fraud, require agencies to include improper-payment reduction plans in their financial plans, expand which programs must be reviewed for susceptibility to significant improper payments (including many new or large programs), strengthen data reporting requirements (including for certain welfare programs), and impose a financial penalty (an automatic reduction of certain agency accounts) for persistent noncompliance beginning the first fiscal year after enactment.