Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Improper Payments topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
GAO: Improper payments and the tax gap remain among the largest drains on federal resources
Summary
Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told the Oversight Committee that improper payments continue at very high levels and that the federal tax gap remains large; members pressed for legislative fixes including extending statutes of limitation and using data matches to stop payments to decedents.
Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told the House Oversight Committee that improper payments and the federal tax gap account for large recurring losses of federal funds and need sustained congressional and administrative action.
"The last six years has been over a hundred and $50,000,000,000 every year in improper payments," Dodaro said in his opening remarks, describing improper payments as payments that "should not have been made or was made in the wrong amount." He added GAO's recent work shows many programs either do not report full improper payment estimates or do not have enough auditing of managed-care and other complex payment arrangements.
The nut graf: Members from both parties said they wanted to reduce improper payments. GAO and lawmakers highlighted a mix of technical fixes and statutory changes, including broader data matching to stop payments to decedents, stronger identity verification for unemployment insurance, and extending statutes of limitation for pandemic-era fraud prosecutions.
GAO estimated the gross tax gap between taxes owed and taxes collected is roughly $600 billion; Dodaro said voluntary compliance rests at about 80 to 85 percent and called for improved enforcement. Members seized on a set of specific proposals: Dodaro and GAO staff urged Congress to make permanent Treasury access to Social Security's death master file (a tool already used in pilot work), and to extend certain fraud statutes of limitation from five to ten years for unemployment-insurance cases created during the pandemic.
Members also discussed Medicaid, Medicare and employer/managed-care payments. Dodaro said Medicaid's improper-payment estimates historically cover the fee-for-service portion but not the managed-care portion, which now accounts for a large share of payments; GAO has recommended the agency increase oversight and audits of managed care plans.
On fraud broadly, Dodaro cited a GAO estimate for 2018to 2022 that annual fraud losses across federal programs fell in a wide range and noted that pandemic-era programs created unique vulnerabilities. He told lawmakers GAO has suggested statutory and administrative steps that would raise recoveries without cutting benefits for people who are eligible.
Ending: Members from both parties asked GAO to provide written, actionable steps and encouraged quick statutory fixes such as making the Social Security death-match permanent and revising statutes of limitation for pandemic-era fraud prosecutions.
