U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

1 

59–010 

" ! SENATE 

114TH CONGRESS

2d Session 

REPORT

2016

114–249 

Calendar No. 456 

STOPPING IMPROPER PAYMENTS TO 

DECEASED PEOPLE ACT 

R E P O R T 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

TO ACCOMPANY

S. 1073 

TO AMEND THE IMPROPER PAYMENTS ELIMINATION AND 

RECOVERY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2012, INCLUDING MAKING 

CHANGES TO THE DO NOT PAY INITIATIVE, FOR IMPROVED 

DETECTION, PREVENTION, AND RECOVERY OF IMPROPER PAYMENTS TO DECEASED INDIVIDUALS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES 

MAY 9, 2016.—Ordered to be printed 


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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

ROB PORTMAN, Ohio 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

JONI ERNST, Iowa 

BEN SASSE, Nebraska 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

GARY C. PETERS, Michigan 

CHRISTOPHER R. HIXON, Staff Director 

GABRIELLE D’ADAMO SINGER, Chief Counsel 

PATRICK J. BAILEY, Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs 

GABRIELLE A. BATKIN, Minority Staff Director 

JOHN P. KILVINGTON, Minority Deputy Staff Director 

MARY BETH SCHULTZ, Minority Chief Counsel 

KATHERINE C. SYBENGA, Minority Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs 

ELLEN W. HARRINGTON, Minority Professional Staff Member 

LAURA W. KILBRIDE, Chief Clerk 


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Calendar No. 456 

114th Congress SENATE REPORT " ! 2d Session 114–249 

STOPPING IMPROPER PAYMENTS TO DECEASED PEOPLE 

ACT 

MAY 9, 2016.—Ordered to be printed 

Mr. JOHNSON, from the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs, submitted the following 

R E P O R T 

[To accompany S. 1073] 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

to which was referred the bill (S. 1073) to amend the Improper 

Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012, including making changes to the Do Not Pay initiative, for improved 

detection, prevention, and recovery of improper payments to deceased individuals, and for other purposes, having considered the 

same, reports favorably thereon with amendments and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

I. Purpose and Summary .................................................................................. 1 

II. Background and Need for the Legislation ................................................... 2 

III. Legislative History ......................................................................................... 4 

IV. Section-by-Section Analysis .......................................................................... 5 

V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact .................................................................. 6 

VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate ................................................ 6 

VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported ........................... 8 

I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

S. 1073 seeks to reduce inadvertent and improper payments by 

Federal agencies to individuals who are deceased and to reduce the 

number of living people mistakenly listed as dead by the Federal 

Government. The bill accomplishes these goals by requiring the Social Security Administration (SSA) to develop a process to improve 

the accuracy of the death data it collects and by sharing that death 

information with additional federal agencies for the purposes of 


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1SENATOR TOM COBURN, FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO DIE FOR: AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS SENT SIX

FEET UNDER (Oct. 2010) (on file with Comm. staff). 2 Id. 

3 Id. 

4 Id. at 3. 5See, e.g., Curbing Federal Agency Waste and Fraud: New Steps to Strengthen the Integrity 

of Federal Payments: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 

113th Cong. (2013); Examining Federal Improper Payments and Errors in the Death Master File: 

Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. (2015) 

[hereinafter Examining Federal Improper Payments and Errors in the Death Master File]. 6GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO–13–574T, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE DEATH MASTER FILE 2–3 (2013), available at http://www.gao.gov/ 

assets/660/654411.pdf [hereinafter, SSA PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS]. 7 42 U.S.C. § 405(r). 

8SSA PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS at 3. 

preventing improper payments, improving tax administration, aiding law enforcement, and for other purposes. 

II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION

This legislation is the result of six years of congressional oversight by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee into improper payments by the Federal Government to people who are deceased. The Committee’s first investigation resulted 

in a report by the then-Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on 

Federal Financial Management, Senator Tom Coburn, titled Federal Programs to Die for: American Tax Dollars Sent Six Feet 

Under.1 The report identified over $1 billion paid out to more than 

250,000 deceased individuals in the decade preceding the report.2

The report highlighted farm subsidies, rental assistance, and stimulus checks to individuals who were deceased.3

Of concern is the Federal Government’s inability to ensure that 

all recipients of Federal funds are alive. The report by Senator 

Coburn noted a response to the Committee by then-Commissioner 

of the Social Security Administration (SSA) Michael Astrue that ‘‘it 

is extremely expensive and may even be impossible to determine if 

a person is alive or dead particularly if the person died many years 

ago.’’ 4

Committee hearings and continued oversight in both the 113th 

and 114th congressional sessions have found that the death data 

available to Federal agencies is not always accurate, and that 

many agencies that provide Federal benefits do not have access to 

all of the information they need to prevent improper payments to 

deceased individuals.5 While the SSA maintains a file with the 

death reports it receives from family members, funeral homes, 

states, Federal agencies, postal authorities, and financial institutions, most Federal agencies do not have access to the complete 

death information and instead rely on a slimmed down, less complete, and less timely version of this file that is commonly referred 

to as the Death Master File.6

SSA became the Federal clearinghouse for death data following 

a 1983 amendment to the Social Security Act authorizing the agency to collect and pay for death information from individual state 

vital records agencies.7 Recognizing the value of this authorization, 

SSA began contracting with state vital records agencies to provide 

reports of death.8 To incentivize faster death reports, SSA pays 

these state agencies more based on the timeliness of their reportVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:05 May 11, 2016 Jkt 059010 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\SR249.XXX SR249

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9GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO–14–46: SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH DATA: ADDITIONAL ACTION NEEDED TO ADDRESS DATA ERRORS AND FEDERAL AGENCY ACCESS 7 (2013), available at 

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/659289.pdf [hereinafter SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH DATA]. 10SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH DATA at 10. 11 Id. at 12. 12 Id. at 10, 11. 13 Id. at 5. 14 Id. at 19. 15 Id. at 21–22. 16 Id. at 21. 17 Id. at 22. 18 Id. 19 Id. 

ing.9 Faster reports of death allow SSA to cut off benefits payments 

more quickly and in some cases help avoid devoting agency resources to recouping overpayments from grieving families. 

When SSA receives a death report from a state vital record agency, it does not verify the report prior to entering it into the death 

data.10 This is because states that participate in the electronic 

death registry program submit their reports over the Internet, and 

reports cannot be filed unless the fields are an exact match.11

Therefore, these death reports are considered the most accurate 

and are unlikely to contain basic keystroke errors. If SSA receives 

a death report from a funeral home or family member, the agency 

enters the information manually and only verifies the death report 

if the individual was receiving benefits from SSA.12

The increased reliance on death data provided by the states 

through electronic death registry has resulted in improvements in 

SSA’s death data, making it more valuable for SSA and other Federal agencies that are able to utilize this information to prevent 

payments to deceased people in their own programs.13 However, 

the law that authorized SSA to contract with the state agencies for 

the death reports only allowed SSA to share such information for 

the purpose of ensuring proper payments of benefits.14 This is why 

SSA creates two versions of the death data: one complete list that 

is provided to agencies considered to be benefit-paying agencies, 

and one partial list, the DMF, that does not contain the data from 

the state vital records agencies.15 The DMF is then sold to eligible 

private sector entities and other government agencies by the Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service 

(NTIS).16

As a result of the SSA’s interpretation of which agencies are 

‘‘benefit-paying’’ and which are not, some Federal agencies purchase a version of the death data from NTIS that is incomplete and 

more likely to be inaccurate than the complete death data provided 

to other Federal agencies.17 Furthermore, the DMF will contain 

fewer of the total deaths over time.18 As states and jurisdictions increasingly adopt electronic processes for providing the death reports to SSA, the state-provided death reports will become a larger 

percentage of the overall death reports received by SSA.19

Accuracy problems with the DMF have real-world consequences. 

For example, the SSA Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that 

SSA mistakenly listed 6.5 million holders of Social Security Numbers (SSNs) as alive who were older than 112 years old, despite the 

fact that there was only one known living person of that age in the 


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20 Examining Federal Improper Payments and Errors in the Death Master File at 2 (statement 

of the Honorable Patrick P. O’Carroll, Jr., Inspector General, U.S. Social Security Administration). 21 Id. 22 Id. at 3. 23 Id. 24 Id. 25 Examining Federal Improper Payments and Errors in the Death Master File (statement of 

Judy Rivers). 

United States at that time.20 The OIG did not conduct an extensive 

investigation into the potential misuse of all of these 6.5 million 

SSNs, but did find that over a five-year period, $3.1 billion in earnings were reported under approximately 67,000 of the SSNs.21 The 

OIG also found that over a three-year period, there were approximately 4,000 E-Verify inquiries submitted to SSA through the Department of Homeland Security for SSNs of individuals over 112,22

indicating that someone was attempting to obtain employment 

using those numbers. 

In addition to concerns over improper payments resulting from 

an inaccurate DMF, the OIG raised concerns about SSA mistakenly 

listing living individuals as deceased.23 According to SSA, there are 

nearly 1,000 living individuals each month who are mistakenly listed as deceased in the DMF.24 For some of these individuals, it is 

a relatively simple error to correct. For others, however, the result 

can be devastating.25

S. 1073 directs the SSA to share the most complete death data 

with the Department of the Treasury’s Do Not Pay system and all 

Federal agencies for the purposes of preventing improper payments, aiding law enforcement, and improving tax administration 

and collection. This requirement will end five years after the bill 

is enacted to allow Congress to reassess whether there is an alternative source of death data for Federal agencies. The legislation 

also requires that SSA develop a plan to improve the accuracy and 

completeness of the death data it collects and improves the use of 

death data by government agencies. 

S. 1073 builds on recently enacted improper payments laws, including the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 

2010 (P.L. 111–204), the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012 (P.L. 112–248), and S. 1360, the 

Improper Payments Agency Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2013, 

introduced by Senators Carper, Coburn, Ayotte, Johnson, McCaskill, and Tester and passed by the Senate in the 113th Congress. 

III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

Ranking Member Carper introduced S. 1073 with Chairman 

Johnson and Senators Mark Warner, Daniel Coats, and Cory Booker on April 23, 2015, and the bill was referred to the Committee. 

Senators Claire McCaskill, Thom Tillis, and Tammy Baldwin 

joined as cosponsors on May 4, June 3, and July 28, 2015, respectively. 

The Committee considered S. 1073 at a business meeting on July 

29, 2015. During the business meeting, an amendment by Senators 

Johnson and Carper, and an amendment by Senator Ben Sasse related to information security were offered. The legislation, as modified by the two amendments, passed by voice vote en bloc with SenVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:05 May 11, 2016 Jkt 059010 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\SR249.XXX SR249

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ators Johnson, Portman, Lankford, Ernst, Sasse, Carper, Baldwin, 

Heitkamp, and Peters present for the votes. 

Consistent with the Committee’s order on technical and conforming changes at the meeting, the Committee reports the bill 

with a technical amendment by mutual agreement of the full Committee majority and minority staff. 

IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Section 1. Short title 

This section establishes the short title of the bill as the ‘‘Stopping 

Improper Payments to Deceased People Act.’’ 

Section 2. Distribution of death information furnished to or maintained by the Social Security Administration 

Subsection (a) amends Section 205(r) of the Social Security Act 

to require, rather than allow, SSA to compensate states for the provision of death information, and makes ensuring the completeness, 

timeliness, and accuracy of the death data a reason for the compensation. 

Subsection (a) strikes paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) of section 

205(r) of the Social Security Act and reauthorizes these authorities 

with some technical drafting changes in new subsections (3)(A), (4), 

and (5). Subsection (a) also requires the Commissioner of Social Security, to the extent feasible, to provide for the use of information 

regarding all deceased individuals furnished to or maintained by 

the SSA through a cooperative arrangement in order for a Federal 

agency to carry out any of the following purposes: (1) operating the 

Do Not Pay working system; (2) to ensure proper payments under 

a Federal program or the proper payments of federal funded benefits; (3) to carry out tax administration or debt collection duties of 

the agency; or (4) for use by any policing agency of the federal government with the principal function of prevention, detection, or investigation of crime or apprehension of offenders. The agreements 

will require agencies to reimburse SSA for the reasonable cost of 

providing such information. Subsection (a) also provides that the 

amendments made by this subsection are repealed five years after 

the date of enactment. 

Subsection (b) amends section 6103(d)(4) of the Internal Revenue 

Code to require States to have an agreement in place with the 

Commissioner of Social Security, instead of the Secretary of Health 

and Human Services, in order to receive certain Federal tax return 

information. Current law already requires states to have an agreement with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to receive 

certain federal tax information. Subsection (b) changes current law 

so that the agreement would be made with the Commissioner of 

Social Security, instead of the Secretary of Health and Human 

Services, and would allow the Commissioner of Social Security to 

share the state provided death information for the additional purposes in subsection (a) of this bill. 

Subsection (c) requires the Director of the Office of Management 

and Budget to provide to Congress a report with the results of a 

review of potential alternative sources of death data maintained by 

nonfederal sources, including sources maintained by State agencies 

for the use by Federal agencies and partners. The report should inVerDate Sep 11 2014 09:38 May 10, 2016 Jkt 059010 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\SR249.XXX SR249

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clude a recommendation regarding whether to extend the agency 

access to the death data provided by SSA under this bill. 

Section 3. Improving the use of death data by government agencies 

to curb improper payments 

This section creates a new section in the Improper Payments 

Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012 that requires 

the Office of Management and Budget to provide guidance to Federal agencies regarding the use of death data within six months, 

and to develop a plan within one year to assist states, local governments, and Indian tribes in providing electronic death records to 

SSA. 

This section also requires a report to Congress within 270 days 

after enactment on how States, local governments, and Indian 

tribes will improve data matching with the Federal Government 

with respect to the death of individuals. 

Section 4. Plan for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of death 

data maintained by the Social Security Administration 

This section requires the Commissioner of SSA to submit a plan 

to Congress within one year of enactment to improve the accuracy 

and completeness of death data maintained and distributed by 

SSA. The plan must include a procedure for identifying individuals 

who are listed as alive but older than the oldest known living person in SSA records, improved procedures for identifying and correcting erroneous records, and a process for employing statistical 

analysis of the death data to determine and estimate the number 

of erroneous records. 

Section 5. Report on information security 

This section requires the Commissioner of SSA to report to Congress on information security within 90 days of enactment. 

V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of 

the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has considered 

the regulatory impact of this bill and determined that the bill will 

have no regulatory impact within the meaning of the rules. The 

Committee agrees with the Congressional Budget Office’s statement that the bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 

mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 

(UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments. 

VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE

FEBRUARY 17, 2016. 

Hon. RON JOHNSON, Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. 

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Congressional Budget Office has prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 1073, the Stopping Improper 

Payments to Deceased People Act. 


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If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be pleased 

to provide them. The CBO staff contacts are Noah Meyerson and 

Matt Pickford. 

Sincerely, 

KEITH HALL. 

Enclosure. 

S. 1073—Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act 

S. 1073 would expand the use of data on deaths by federal and 

state agencies to limit improper federal payments. The bill would 

require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to share all such 

information with more agencies and for a broader range of purposes. 

CBO estimates that implementing S. 1073 would have an insignificant net effect on discretionary spending. Because enacting S. 

1073 could reduce direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. 

However, CBO estimates that such effects would probably be insignificant for each year over the next 10 years. The bill would not 

affect revenues. CBO estimates that enacting S. 1073 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits by more than $5 

billion in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 

2027. 

Under current law, the Social Security Administration collects 

information on deaths and maintains a record of all deaths reported to the agency dating to 1936. SSA has about 105 million 

death records, which include the deceased person’s name, social security number, date of birth, and date of death. SSA uses those 

data to administer its own programs and shares the information 

with other agencies that administer federal benefit programs. 

SSA provides the entire death file to some federal agencies, such 

as the Internal Revenue Service. SSA also has agreements with 

other agencies, such as state agencies administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, so that those agencies can 

periodically verify that program applicants and recipients are not 

included in those death records. The Department of Commerce 

makes the Death Master File (DMF), a subset of those data, available to nongovernmental organizations after the department certifies that they have a legitimate purpose for use of the data, for 

example to prevent fraud. The DMF, which has information on 

about 90 million deceased individuals, excludes death data reported 

by states, because SSA may share data on deaths reported by 

states only in limited circumstances, such as to agencies that pay 

federal benefits. (A subset of the DMF, which is available to the 

general public through the Department of Commerce, excludes both 

death data reported by states and data on deaths within the past 

three years.) 

S. 1073 would require SSA to share its complete death records 

with more agencies and for a broader range of purposes. It also 

would make the complete death records, rather than only the DMF, 

part of the Do Not Pay program—a program administered by the 

Department of the Treasury that allows agencies to check various 

databases before making payments in order to identify ineligible 

recipients. Hence, there would likely be more frequent checks 

against the more complete death records than occur under current 

law. Those provisions would expire five years after enactment of 


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the bill. The bill requires the director of the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) to recommend, within four years of enactment, 

whether to extend the broader data access. 

The expanded availability of information on deaths would probably reduce the amount of mistaken payments. However, large benefit-paying agencies generally already use the complete death 

records, so CBO expects that enacting the bill would not reduce the 

number of payments to deceased people by a significant amount. In 

addition, the Department of the Treasury has mechanisms to recover improper payments that are identified at a later time, so 

many such payments are already recovered. For those reasons, 

CBO estimates that enacting S. 1073 would decrease direct spending by an insignificant amount. 

The bill also would require the director of OMB to review alternative sources of death data and report its findings to the Congress, to provide guidance to relevant agencies on how to access 

death data, and to develop a plan to assist state and local governments in providing death data to the federal government. CBO estimates that implementing those provisions would increase agency 

administrative costs by an insignificant amount. 

S. 1073 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would 

impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments. 

The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Noah Meyerson and 

Matthew Pickford. The estimate was approved by H. Samuel 

Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. 

VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

UNITED STATES CODE 

* * * * * * * 

TITLE 26—THE INTERNAL REVENUE CODE 

* * * * * * * 

Subtitle F—Procedure and Administration 

* * * * * * * 

CHAPTER 61—INFORMATION AND RETURNS 

* * * * * * * 

Subchapter B—Miscellaneous Provisions 

* * * * * * * 

SEC. 6103. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLOSURE OF RETURNS AND RETURN INFORMATION. 

(a) * * * 

* * * * * * * 

(d) DISCLOSURE TO STATE TAX OFFICIALS AND STATE AND LOCAL

LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES.— 


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(1) * * * 

* * * * * * * 

(4) 

(A) IN GENERAL.—No returns or return information may 

be disclosed under paragraph (1) to any agency, body, or 

commission of any State (or any legal representative thereof) during any period during which a contract meeting the 

requirements of subparagraph (B) is not in effect between 

such State and the øSecretary of Health and Human Services¿ Commissioner of Social Security. 

(B) CONTRACTUAL REQUIREMENTS.—A contract meets the 

requirements of this subparagraph if— 

(i) such contract requires the State to furnish the 

øSecretary of Health and Human Services¿ Commissioner of Social Security information concerning individuals with respect to whom death certificates (or 

equivalent documents maintained by the State or any 

subdivision thereof) have been officially filed with it, 

and 

(ii) such contract does not include any restriction on 

the use of information obtained by øsuch Secretary 

pursuant to such contract, except that such contract 

may provide that such information is only to be used 

by the Secretary (or any other Federal agency) for purposes of ensuring that Federal benefits or other payments are not erroneously paid to deceased individuals¿ such Commissioner pursuant to such contract, 

except that such contract may provide that such information is only to be used by the Social Security Administration (or any other Federal agency) for purposes 

authorized in the Social Security Act or this title. 

Any information obtained by the øSecretary of Health and 

Human Services¿ Commissioner of Social Security under 

such a contract shall be exempt from disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United States Code, and from the requirements of section 552a of such title 5. 

* * * * * * * 

TITLE 31—MONEY AND FINANCE 

* * * * * * * 

Section. 3321. Disbursing authority in the executive branch 

* * * * * * * 

Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery 

Improvement 

* * * * * * * 

SEC. 7. IMPROVING THE USE OF DATA BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES 

FOR CURBING IMPROPER PAYMENTS. 

(a) * * * 

(b) * * * 


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(c) GUIDANCE TO AGENCIES REGARDING DATA MATCHING WITH

DEATH DATABASES.— 

(1) GUIDANCE TO AGENCIES.—Not later than 6 months after 

the date of enactment of this subsection, and in consultation 

with the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and the heads of other relevant Federal, State, and local 

agencies, and Indian tribes and tribal organizations, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall issue guidance for each agency or component of an agency that operates 

or maintains a database of information relating to beneficiaries, annuity recipients, or any purpose described in section 

205(r)(3)(B) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 405(r)(3)(B)) 

for which improved data matching with databases relating to 

the death of an individual (in this subsection referred to as 

‘‘death databases’’) would be relevant and necessary regarding 

implementation of this subsection to provide such agencies or 

components access to the death databases no later than 6 

months after such date of enactment. 

(2) PLAN TO ASSIST STATES AND LOCAL AGENCIES AND INDIAN

TRIBES AND TRIBAL ORGANIZATIONS.—Not later than 1 year 

after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Director of the 

Office of Management and Budget shall develop a plan to assist 

States and local agencies, and Indian tribes and tribal organizations, in providing electronically to the Federal Government 

records relating to the death of individuals, which may include 

recommendations to Congress for any statutory changes or financial assistance to States and local agencies and Indian 

tribes and tribal organizations that are necessary to ensure 

States and local agencies and Indian tribes and tribal organizations can provide such records electronically. The plan may 

include recommendations for the authorization of appropriations or other funding to carry out the plan. 

(d) REPORTS.— 

(1) REPORT TO CONGRESS ON IMPROVING DATA MATCHING REGARDING PAYMENTS TO DECEASED INDIVIDUALS.—Not later than 

270 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation 

with the heads of other relevant federal agencies, and in consultation with States and local agencies, Indian tribes and tribal organizations, shall submit to Congress a plan to improve 

how States and local agencies and Indian tribes and tribal organizations that provide benefits under a federally funded program will improve data matching with the Federal Government 

with respect to the death of individuals who are recipients of 

such benefits. 

(2) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of 

enactment of this subsection, and for each of the 4 succeeding 

years, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 

shall submit to Congress a report regarding the implementation 

of this subsection (c) and paragraph (1). The first report submitted under this paragraph shall include the recommendations of the Director required under subsection (c)(2). 

(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘‘Indian tribe’’ and 

‘‘tribal organization’’ have the meanings given those terms in section 


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4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act 

(25 U.S.C. 450b). 

* * * * * * * 

TITLE 42—THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE 

* * * * * * * 

CHAPTER 7—SOCIAL SECURITY 

* * * * * * * 

Subchapter II—Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability 

Insurance Benefits 

* * * * * * * 

SEC. 405. EVIDENCE, PROCEDURE, AND CERTIFICATION FOR PAYMENTS. 

(a) * * * 

* * * * * * * 

(r) 

(1) * * * 

(2) Each State (or political subdivision thereof) which furnishes the Commissioner of Social Security with information 

on records of deaths in the State or subdivision under this subsection ømay¿ shall be paid by the Commissioner of Social Security from amounts available for administration of this chapter the reasonable costs (established by the Commissioner of 

Social Security in consultations with the States) for transcribing and transmitting, and to ensure the completeness, 

timeliness, and accuracy of such information to the Commissioner of Social Security. 

ø(3) In the case of individuals with respect to whom federally 

funded benefits are provided by (or through) a Federal or State 

agency other than under this chapter, the Commissioner of Social Security shall to the extent feasible provide such information through a cooperative arrangement with such agency, for 

ensuring proper payment of those benefits with respect to such 

individuals if— 

ø(A) under such arrangement the agency provides reimbursement to the Commissioner of Social Security for the 

reasonable cost of carrying out such arrangement, and 

ø(B) such arrangement does not conflict with the duties 

of the Commissioner of Social Security under paragraph 

(1). 

ø(4) The Commissioner of Social Security may enter into 

similar agreements with States to provide information for their 

use in programs wholly funded by the States if the requirements of subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (3) are met. 

ø(5) The Commissioner of Social Security may use or provide 

for the use of such records as may be corrected under this section, subject to such safeguards as the Commissioner of Social 

Security determines are necessary or appropriate to protect the 

information from unauthorized use or disclosure, for statistical 


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and research activities conducted by Federal and State agencies.¿ 

(3) 

(A) The Commissioner of Social Security shall, to the extent feasible, provide for the use of information regarding 

all deceased individuals furnished to or maintained by the 

Commissioner under this subsection in accordance with 

subparagraph (B), subject to such safeguards as the Commissioner of Social Security determines are necessary or 

appropriate to protect the information from unauthorized 

use or disclosure, by any Federal or State agency providing 

federally funded benefits or administering a Federal program for such benefits, including the agency operating the 

Do Not Pay working system for ensuring proper payment of 

those benefits, through a cooperative arrangement with the 

agency (that includes the agency’s Inspector General) or 

with an agency’s Inspector General, if— 

(i) under such arrangement the agency (including, if 

applicable, the agency’s Inspector General) provides reimbursement to the Commissioner of Social Security 

for the reasonable cost of carrying out such arrangement, including the reasonable costs associated with 

the collection and maintenance of information regarding deceased individuals furnished to the Commissioner pursuant to paragraph (1), and 

(ii) such arrangement does not conflict with the duties of the Commissioner of Social Security under paragraph (1). 

(B) The Commissioner of Social Security shall, to the extent feasible, provide for the use of information regarding 

all deceased individuals furnished to or maintained by the 

Commissioner under this subsection, through a cooperative 

arrangement in order for a Federal agency to carry out any 

of the following purposes, if the requirements of clauses (i) 

and (ii) of subparagraph (A) are met: 

(i) Operating the Do Not Pay working system established by section 5 of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012. Under 

such arrangement, the agency operating the working 

system may compare death information disclosed by 

the Commissioner with personally identifiable information reviewed through the working system, and may redisclose such comparison of information, as appropriate, to any Federal or State agency authorized to use 

the working system. 

(ii) To ensure proper payments under a Federal program or the proper payment of federally funded benefits, including for purposes of payment certification, 

payment disbursement, and the prevention, identification, or recoupment of improper payments. 

(iii) To carry out tax administration or debt collection duties of the agency. 

(iv) For use by any policing agency of the Federal 

Government with the principle function of prevention, 


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13 

detection, or investigation of crime or the apprehension 

of alleged offenders. 

(4) The Commissioner of Social Security may enter into similar arrangements with States to provide information regarding 

all deceased individuals furnished to or maintained by the 

Commissioner under this subsection, for any of the purposes 

specified in paragraph (3)(B), for use by States in programs 

wholly funded by the States, or for use in the administration 

of a benefit pension plan or retirement system for employees of 

a State or a political subdivision thereof, if the requirements of 

clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (3)(A) are met. For purposes of 

this paragraph, the terms ‘‘retirement system’’ and ‘‘political 

subdivision’’ have the meanings given such terms in section 

218(b). 

(5) The Commissioner of Social Security may use or provide 

for the use of information regarding all deceased individuals 

furnished to or maintained by the Commissioner under this 

subsection, subject to such safeguards as the Commissioner of 

Social Security determines are necessary or appropriate to protect the information from unauthorized use or disclosure, for 

statistical purposes and research activities by Federal and State 

agencies if the requirements of clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph 

(3)(A) are met. For purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘‘statistical purposes’’ has the meaning given that term in section 502 

of the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002. 

* * * * * * * 

(8) 

(A) The Commissioner of Social Security shall, upon the 

request of the official responsible for a State driver’s license agency pursuant to the Help America Vote Act of 

2002— 

(i) enter into an agreement with such official for the 

purpose of verifying applicable information, so long as 

the requirements of øsubparagraphs (A) and (B) of 

paragraph (3)¿ clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (3)(A) 

are met; and 

(ii) include in such agreement safeguards to assure 

the maintenance of the confidentiality of any applicable information disclosed and procedures to permit 

such agency to use the applicable information for the 

purpose of maintaining its records. 

* * * * * * * 

Æ 


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