Federal workers get bigger bonuses for catching government waste and fraud.
H.R. 428 — Bonuses for Cost-Cutters and Fraud Preventers Act of 2026 · Filed by Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 15, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill increases federal employee bonuses for reporting wasteful spending and fraud prevention. It raises the maximum award from $10,000 to $20,000, expands eligibility to include employees who identify improper payments (not just cost savings), and requires agencies to report these disclosures to the President and Treasury Department. The bill creates a structured process for federal workers to flag waste and get rewarded for it.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a financial incentive structure designed to encourage federal employees to identify and report waste and fraud within their agencies. It is a transparency and accountability measure, not a deregulation, subsidy, or carve-out.
What the text implies
- Agencies must now report wasteful-expense identifications to the President and improper-payment identifications to Treasury, creating new reporting obligations and potential political visibility for agency waste.
- The bill excludes Office of Inspector General employees from receiving awards, preventing potential conflicts of interest but also narrowing the pool of internal watchdogs who can be incentivized.
- Agencies gain discretion to determine the 'process' by which employees report wasteful expenses, potentially creating variation in accessibility and transparency across federal government.
- The requirement for OMB guidance within six months and GAO reporting every two years for four years creates ongoing oversight, but the bill's effectiveness depends on agency implementation and employee awareness.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens benefit from stronger internal incentives for federal employees to identify and prevent waste and fraud, which reduces taxpayer losses and improves government efficiency. The bill creates no new restrictions on citizens' rights or remedies; it only empowers employees to report misconduct and rewards them for doing so.
Named in the bill
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of the Treasury, Office of Inspector General, Comptroller General of the United States, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jan 15, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 15, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform”
- Mar 18, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Mar 18, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 40 - 0”
- Jun 8, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3936-3937)”
- Jun 8, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Gill (TX) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $180,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 50 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 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Chuck Fleischmann, the sponsor, reported $688,751 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Rsm Us Llp (formerly Known As Mcgladrey Llp) — $150,000 on 1 filing
- National Taxpayers Union — $30,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 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 (7,052 characters) on Jun 8, 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 Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. 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 Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal workers get bigger bonuses for catching government waste and fraud.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr428 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.