SSA and Treasury to share death records, preventing payments to deceased
H.R. 2716 — Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act · Filed by Clay Higgins (R-LA) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 8, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill requires the Social Security Administration to share death records with the federal 'Do Not Pay' system to prevent payments to deceased people and recover improperly paid benefits. It also requires SSA to notify agencies when someone is incorrectly marked as deceased, and mandates a cost-sharing agreement between SSA and the Do Not Pay system operator. The bill takes effect December 27, 2026.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is administrative coordination between federal agencies to prevent improper payments and recover fraud. It is a straightforward government-integrity measure with no private-sector carve-outs or hidden riders.
What the text implies
- Individuals incorrectly marked as deceased in state records may face temporary benefit suspension or payment delays until the error is corrected, creating a procedural burden on living citizens to prove they are alive.
- The 'clear and convincing evidence' standard for recording deaths is high, but the bill does not specify remedies or timelines for correcting erroneous death records, potentially leaving citizens in limbo.
- Cost-sharing agreement between SSA and Do Not Pay operator may create incentives to flag deaths aggressively to minimize SSA's proportional cost burden, increasing false-positive error rates.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens benefit from reduced improper payments to deceased individuals, which saves taxpayer money and improves program integrity. The bill also protects living citizens from being incorrectly flagged as deceased by requiring notification and correction. No new restrictions on citizen rights or access to benefits are imposed.
Named in the bill
Social Security Administration (SSA), Do Not Pay working system, Department of the Treasury, State agencies, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116–260)
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- Apr 8, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 8, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
- Dec 10, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Dec 10, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 40 - 0”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $5,300,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 104 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Clay Higgins, the sponsor, reported $138,570 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- AARP — $5,300,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,389 characters) on Jul 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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