Bustos Statement on Treasury Sending Nearly $1.4 Billion Worth of Stimulus Checks to Dead People

Press Release

Today, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) released the following statement in response to the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) report that 1.1 million dead people received COVID-19-related economic impact payments totaling nearly $1.4 billion.

"I cannot think of a more glaring example of government waste than paying nearly $1.4 billion to deceased people," Congresswoman Bustos said. "While it was critical to get economic stimulus checks into American's hands, today's report reveals staggering waste that demonstrates the vast magnitude of these improper payments. The report also shows the IRS knowingly failed to use death records made available to them that could have saved hard-earned taxpayer dollars. It's clear more needs to be done to prevent this from occurring in the future, and a good start would be implementing the GAO's recommendation of providing access to the full set of death records to the Treasury as outlined in my legislation, the Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act. It's long past time we fully adopt the measures my colleagues and I have called for -- including sharing this vital information with all appropriate federal agencies."

The report comes after Congresswoman Bustos led a letter with Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) and Congressman Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) to U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Charles Rettig and Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Andrew Saul, calling on each department to take immediate action to prevent further improper CARES Act payments.

In their letter, the lawmakers requested how many improper economic impact payments have been disbursed and asked for information on the steps that are being taken to recover these funds, prevent future improper payments of funds to deceased individuals, and protect and support taxpayers who received improper payments through no fault of their own.

Today's GAO report recommends that the Treasury be provided access to the Social Security Administration's full set of death records and require it be consistently used to reduce improper payments. Congresswoman Bustos and Senator Carper, along with Senator Kennedy and Congressman Gianforte, introduced the Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act last year, which would do just that in order to save millions of federal dollars and curb erroneous payments to deceased people.

The SSA maintains the most complete federal database of individuals who are reported to have died. However, only a small number of federal agencies have access to this official list, and most federal agencies rely on a slimmed down, incomplete, and less timely version of the death information. In addition, most Inspectors General lack access to the complete death information. As a result, many federal agencies make erroneous payments to people who are deceased.

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