House committee advances 9 anti-fraud bills with mostly bipartisan support

House lawmakers are moving ahead with several bipartisan bills cracking down on fraudulent federal spending.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee advanced anti-fraud bills in a markup on Wednesday. Most of the pieces of legislation have broad support from both parties and several good-government groups.

The Government Accountability Office estimates that the federal government pays between $233 and $521 billion to fraudsters each year.

Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said this package of bills would end the “pay-and-chase” method of clawing back fraudulent payments by requiring agencies to conduct anti-fraud checks before money goes out the door.

“These bills we are considering today will bolster existing fraud prevention resources to help federal agencies and states better prevent and address fraud in the programs they administer,” Comer said.

If passed by Congress, the bills would advance some of the Trump administration’s fraud-prevention efforts. President Donald Trump declared a “war on fraud” during his State of the Union address and signed an executive order establishing an interagency fraud task force. 

Pre-Payment Fraud Prevention and Treasury Data Access Act

The bill would require the Treasury Department to verify payment and payee information with agencies before payments are issued.

Comer said his bill would increase the use of Treasury’s Do Not Pay system, which he said is currently used by 4% of eligible programs across government.

“Clearly, Congress’s intent in establishing the Do Not Pay system is not being met. This bill will address the procedural hurdles agencies face in using the system, it brings agencies into compliance with the required anti-fraud Do Not Pay system check,” he said.

The bill also enables Treasury to bring additional necessary data sets into the Do Not Pay system.

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) said the bill would “help prevent improper payments from making it out the door in the first place.”

“It would require that agencies verify information about payments to Treasury before those payments are made, helping to ensure that payments are going to the right people and organizations to begin with, instead of relying on investigations after the fact to claw back misspent dollars.”

The Data Foundation said it endorses the bill because it “pairs operational modernization of the Treasury Department’s Do Not Pay system with strong privacy protections and rigorous oversight.”

“American taxpayers lose billions of dollars every year to improper payments that could have been prevented with better data infrastructure,” Data Foundation President Nick Hart said in a statement. “This bill addresses the operational bottleneck that kept Do Not Pay from delivering on its promise, while preserving the privacy protections that make the system trustworthy.”

Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act

The bill would establish a permanent inspector general for fraud, accountability and recovery at the Treasury Department. This IG office would be the permanent home for data analytics tools created by the Pandemic Recovery Accountability Committee.

Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said his bill would ensure the PRAC’s anti-fraud capacities “do not simply fade away.”

Sessions said that the PRAC has received bipartisan support for uncovering fraud and being a responsible steward of sensitive data.

“For too long, we have struggled with each other over the issue of who is supposed to have access to privacy information, who is supposed to be able to know Social Security numbers, who is supposed to be having the authority and the responsibility? The PRAC has done their job to collect data and information about things that we believe point them and should point other government agencies to potential fraud,” he said.

The PRAC was extended through 2034 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and was given new authority to oversee spending in the budget reconciliation package.

Walkinshaw said the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act would deviate from what made the PRAC successful.

“Its location within CIGIE has allowed for cross-agency forensic analysis after money flows, and the ability to coordinate across dozens of IGs across the government,” he said. “I’m concerned that locating it in Treasury will weaken its ability to compel cooperation with other IGS across the country.”

Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act

The bill would give the Treasury new authority to return requested payments to agencies if it determines that the payments appear to be at risk of being fraudulent after checking the payment against its Do Not Pay system.

The bill would also stop agencies from making payments when an agency has determined there is an elevated risk of fraud.

Comer said Treasury “is not fully empowered to stop payments” suspected of being fraudulent,” and that this bill would address this.

“Under current law, agencies can issue payments despite flags received from Treasury’s do not pay system or other tools that might indicate fraud,” he said.

Walkinshaw said he opposed the bill, warning that it uses vague criteria that could be used to stop many legitimate payments.

“The American people want the programs they pay for to work. They don’t want unnecessary red tape, delay legitimate payments or more dysfunction,” he said.

Federal Fraud Prevention Workforce Training Act

The bill would require Treasury to establish and maintain a governmentwide anti-fraud training program for federal agencies, and to provide the training program to state and local entities administering federally funded programs at no cost.

The bill’s author, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said preventing fraudulent payments “starts with a well-trained workforce.”

“When individuals are not equipped to spot red flags, it increases the likelihood that the taxpayer dollars will be misspent,” Grothman said.

Zeroing Out Monetary Benefits Improperly Expended (ZOMBIE) Act

The bill would replace GAO’s annual improper payment estimate with ongoing risk assessments on a rolling basis. Those assessments would determine how agencies are implementing fraud prevention best practices, including GAO’s fraud risk framework

The bill would also strengthen coordination between agency inspectors general and the Treasury Department through annual meetings.

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) said that if his bill passes, “agencies will be able to pivot their focus from compliance activities to mitigating improper payments.”

Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif) said the bill contains ”common sense measures to help prevent improper payments and promote accountability when improper payments are actually made.”

Taxpayer Resources Used in Emergencies (TRUE) Accountability Act

The bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to prepare guidance on preventing fraudulent payments during an emergency or crisis. The bill would require agencies to develop emergency fraud-mitigation plans built on GAO’s fraud prevention framework

Taxpayer Funds Oversight and Accountability Act

The bill would clarify the role of agency chief financial officers by explicitly making them responsible for financial performance, internal controls, and financial reporting. It would also authorize the deputy CFO to serve as the agency’s acting CFO when there is no permanent CFO.

“When no senior official is clearly responsible for financial risk management, fraud finds the gaps,” the bill’s author, Rep. William Timmons (R-Ohio), said during the markup.

Timely and Accurate Benefits Act

The bill would require that states have access to Treasury’s Do Not Pay system so they can run eligibility checks and prevent taxpayer dollars from going to fraudsters. State and local governments administer more than a trillion dollars of federal funds each year, but states do not yet have access to Do Not Pay.

Government Audit and Accountability of Federally Funded State-Administered Programs Act

The bill requires that GAO conduct an annual report on federally funded state-administered programs that are the greatest risk of fraud. The report would compare trends across states and identify programs and practices most vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse.

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