Sponsor
Gary James Palmer
Representative · R-AL
Representative · R-AL
The bill strengthens detection, consistency, and transparency around improper payments—benefiting taxpayers and oversight—at the cost of increased administrative and compliance burden, privacy and data‑sharing challenges, and some timing/visibility risks.
Taxpayers: Federal agencies will produce statistically valid estimates of improper payments and report them more transparently, improving visibility into government waste and where taxpayer dollars are lost.
Federal employees, Inspectors General, and oversight bodies: Updated and standardized guidance (Treasury, OMB, CIGIE, and IG guidance) will improve consistency of risk assessments, estimation methods, and reporting—helping detect/prevent improper payments and strengthen program oversight and accountability.
State and local governments (and their partners): Annual Federal–State coordination meetings and shared best practices should improve cross-jurisdiction fraud prevention and information sharing to reduce improper payments at non‑federal levels.
Federal agencies, Inspectors General, contractors, and taxpayers: New and more detailed reporting, required risk assessments, and mandated IG content will increase administrative workload and program costs to implement and maintain compliance.
Federal agencies and taxpayers: Broader requirements around ‘estimation methodologies’ may force systems and practice changes (new methodologies, tools, or IT work), imposing additional one‑time and recurring compliance costs.
State/local governments and private data holders: Expanded data access and coordination requirements heighten privacy, data‑sharing, and implementation challenges for states, localities, and non‑federal data stewards.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Directs agencies to focus improper-payment estimates and reporting on payments that cause defined financial loss, requires risk assessments, and moves estimates into agency budget justifications.
Official title: To reform the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 to ensure executive agencies focus on fraud prevention, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 23, 2026 by Gary James Palmer · Last progress June 11, 2026
Changes federal improper-payment law to focus agencies' reporting, estimates, and controls on improper payments that cause an actual financial loss to the Government, introduces a statutory definition of “financial loss to the Government,” and moves more of the published estimates and supporting materials into agency budget justifications. It also directs Treasury, OMB, and CIGIE to issue or revise risk-assessment and estimation guidance, tightens Inspectors General reporting duties, and adjusts reporting frequencies and interagency coordination requirements. The bill requires Treasury to issue risk-assessment guidance and agencies to perform risk assessments (including before new-program disbursements), shifts some reporting to triennial schedules with specified annual coordination, expands required reporting content (controls, data access, fraud-risk management), and makes several previously optional Inspector General and guidance-related provisions mandatory or revised in timing/terminology.