Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Improper Payments Agency Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2014”.
Improper Payments Agency Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2014
AN ACT
To amend the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012, including making changes to the Do Not Pay initiative, for improved detection, prevention, and recovery of improper payments to deceased individuals, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Distribution of death information furnished to or maintained by the social security administration
In general—
in paragraph (2)—
by striking “may” and inserting “shall”; and
by inserting “, and to ensure the completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of,” after “transmitting”;
by striking paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) and inserting the following:
“(3)
“(A) The Commissioner of Social Security shall, to the extent feasible, provide for the use of information regarding all deceased individuals furnished to or maintained by the Commissioner under this subsection in accordance with subparagraph (B), subject to such safeguards as the Commissioner of Social Security determines are necessary or appropriate to protect the information from unauthorized use or disclosure, by any Federal or State agency providing federally-funded benefits or administering a Federal program for such benefits, including the agency operating the Do Not Pay working system for ensuring proper payment of those benefits, through a cooperative arrangement with the agency (that includes the agency's Inspector General) or with an agency's Inspector General, if—
“(i) under such arrangement the agency (including, if applicable, the agency's Inspector General) provides reimbursement to the Commissioner of Social Security for the reasonable cost of carrying out such arrangement, including the reasonable costs associated with the collection and maintenance of information regarding deceased individuals furnished to the Commissioner pursuant to paragraph (1), and
“(ii) such arrangement does not conflict with the duties of the Commissioner of Social Security under paragraph (1).
“(B) The Commissioner of Social Security shall, to the extent feasible, provide for the use of information regarding all deceased individuals furnished to or maintained by the Commissioner under this subsection, through a cooperative arrangement in order for a Federal agency to carry out any of the following purposes, if the requirements of clauses (i) and (ii) of subparagraph (A) are met:
“(i) Operating the Do Not Pay working system established by section 5 of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012. Under such arrangement, the agency operating the working system may compare death information disclosed by the Commissioner with personally identifiable information reviewed through the working system, and may redisclose such comparison of information, as appropriate, to any Federal or State agency authorized to use the working system.
“(ii) To ensure proper payments under a Federal program or the proper payment of federally-funded benefits, including for purposes of payment certification, payment disbursement, and the prevention, identification, or recoupment of improper payments.
“(iii) To carry out tax administration or debt collection duties of the agency.
“(iv) For use by any policing agency of the Federal Government with the principle function of prevention, detection, or investigation of crime or the apprehension of alleged offenders.
“(4) The Commissioner of Social Security may enter into similar arrangements with States to provide information regarding all deceased individuals furnished to or maintained by the Commissioner under this subsection, for any of the purposes specified in paragraph (3)(B), for use by States in programs wholly funded by the States, or for use in the administration of a benefit pension plan or retirement system for employees of a State or a political subdivision thereof, if the requirements of clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (3)(A) are met. For purposes of this paragraph, the terms retirement system and political subdivision have the meanings given such terms in section 218(b).
“(5) The Commissioner of Social Security may use or provide for the use of information regarding all deceased individuals furnished to or maintained by the Commissioner under this subsection, subject to such safeguards as the Commissioner of Social Security determines are necessary or appropriate to protect the information from unauthorized use or disclosure, for statistical purposes and research activities by Federal and State agencies if the requirements of clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (3)(A) are met. For purposes of this paragraph, the term statistical purposes has the meaning given that term in section 502 of the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002.”
in paragraph (8)(A)(i), by striking “subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (3)” and inserting “clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (3)(A)”.
Repeal— Effective on the date that is 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the amendments made by this subsection to paragraphs (3), (4), (5), and (8) of section 205(r) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 405(r)) are repealed, and the provisions of section 205(r) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 605(r)) so amended are restored and revived as if such amendments had not been enacted.
Amendment to internal revenue code— Section 6103(d)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended—
in subparagraphs (A) and (B), by striking “Secretary of Health and Human Services” each place it appears and inserting “Commissioner of Social Security”; and
in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking “such Secretary” and all that follows through “deceased individuals.” and inserting “such Commissioner pursuant to such contract, except that such contract may provide that such information is only to be used by the Social Security Administration (or any other Federal agency) for purposes authorized in the Social Security Act or this title.”.
Report to Congress on alternative sources of death data—
Requirements— The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall conduct a review of potential alternative sources of death data maintained by the non-Federal sources, including sources maintained by State agencies or associations of State agencies, for use by Federal agencies and programs. The review shall include analyses of—
the accuracy and completeness of such data;
interoperability of such data;
the extent to which there is efficient accessability of such data by Federal agencies;
the cost to Federal agencies of accessing and maintaining such data;
the security of such data;
the reliability of such data; and
a comparison of the potential alternate sources of death data to the death data distributed by the Commissioner of Social Security.
Report— Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall submit a report to Congress on the results of the review and analyses required under paragraph (1). The report shall include a recommendation by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget regarding whether to extend the agency access to death data distributed by the Commissioner of Social Security provided under the amendments made by subsection (a)(1) beyond the date on which such amendments are to be repealed under subsection (a)(2).
Sec. 3 Improving the sharing and use of data by government agencies to curb improper payments
The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012 (31 U.S.C. 3321 note) is amended—
in section 5—
in subsection (a)(2), by striking subparagraph (A) and inserting the following:
“(A) The death records maintained by the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.”
in subsection (b)—
by redesignating paragraph (5) as paragraph (6); and
by inserting after paragraph (4) the following:
“(5) Use of death and prisoner information—The Commissioner of Social Security, and the head of any other agency that obtains information on deaths or incarcerated individuals directly from the Commissioner of Social Security pursuant to an agreement under section 205(r) or sections 202(x) and 1611(e) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 405(r), 405(x), 1382(e)) or the Department of the Treasury’s Do Not Pay program, shall be considered to have satisfied the requirements of this section as such requirements relate to payments or to identifying, preventing, or recovering improper payments in the case of deaths or incarcerated individuals. Nothing in the preceding sentence shall be construed as exempting the Commissioner of Social Security or the head of any other agency that obtains information on deaths or incarcerated individuals directly from the Commissioner of Social Security under an agreement under section 205(r) or sections 202(x) and 1611(e) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 405(r), 405(x), 1382(e)) or the Department of the Treasury’s Do Not Pay program from being subject to any improper payment reporting requirement of the Director of the Office of Management.”
by adding at the end the following:
“7. Improving the use of death data by government agencies
“(a) Prompt reporting of death information by the Department of State and the Department of Defense—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Commissioner of Social Security, shall establish a procedure under which each Secretary shall, promptly and on a regular basis, submit to the Commissioner information relating to the deaths of individuals. The Commissioner shall, to the extent feasible, provide for the use of death information submitted under this subsection for the purpose specified in clause (i) of section 205(r)(3)(B) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 405(r)(3)(B)).
“(b) Guidance by the office of management and budget
“(1) Guidance to agencies—Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this section, and in consultation with the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and the heads of other relevant Federal, State, and local agencies, and Indian tribes and tribal organizations, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall issue guidance for each agency or component of an agency that operates or maintains a database of information relating to beneficiaries, annuity recipients, or any purpose described in section 205(r)(3)(B) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 405(r)(3)(B)) for which improved data matching with databases relating to the death of an individual (in this section referred to as “death databases”) would be relevant and necessary regarding implementation of this section to provide such agencies or components access to the death databases no later than 6 months after such date of enactment.
“(2) Plan to assist States and local agencies and Indian tribes and tribal organizations—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall develop a plan to assist States and local agencies, and Indian tribes and tribal organizations, in providing electronically to the Federal Government records relating to the death of individuals, which may include recommendations to Congress for any statutory changes or financial assistance to States and local agencies and Indian tribes and tribal organizations that are necessary to ensure States and local agencies and Indian tribes and tribal organizations can provide such records electronically. The plan may include recommendations for the authorization of appropriations or other funding to carry out the plan.
“(c) Reports
“(1) Report to congress on improving data matching regarding payments to deceased individuals—Not later than 270 days after the date of enactment of this section, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with the heads of other relevant Federal agencies, and in consultation with States and local agencies, Indian tribes and tribal organizations, shall submit to Congress a plan to improve how States and local agencies and Indian tribes and tribal organizations that provide benefits under a federally-funded program will improve data matching with the Federal Government with respect to the death of individuals who are recipients of such benefits.
“(2) Annual report—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, and for each of the 4 succeeding years, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall submit to Congress a report regarding the implementation of this section. The first report submitted under this paragraph shall include the recommendations of the Director required under subsection (b)(2).
“(d) Definitions—In this section, the terms Indian tribe and tribal organization have the meanings given those terms in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450b).”
Sec. 4 Availability of the Do Not Pay Initiative to the judicial and legislative branches and states
Section 5 of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012 (31 U.S.C. 3321 note), as amended by section 3, is further amended—
in subsection (b)(3)—
in the paragraph heading, by striking “by agencies”; and
by adding at the end the following: “States and any contractor, subcontractor, or agent of a State, and the judicial and legislative branches of the United States (as defined in paragraphs (2) and (3), respectively, of section 202(e) of title 18, United States Code), shall have access to, and use of, the Do Not Pay Initiative to verify payment or award eligibility for payments (as defined in section (2)(g)(3) of the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002, 31 U.S.C. 3321 note) when, with respect to a State, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget determines that the Do Not Pay Initiative is appropriately established for that State and any contractor, subcontractor, or agent of the State, and, with respect to the judicial and legislative branches of the United States, when the Director of the Office of Management and Budget determines that the Do Not Pay Initiative is appropriately established for the judicial branch or the legislative branch, as applicable.”; and
in subsection (d)(2)—
in subparagraph (B), by striking “and” after the semicolon;
in subparagraph (C), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
by inserting after subparagraph (C) the following:
“(D) may include States and their quasi-government entities, and the judicial and legislative branches of the United States (as defined in paragraphs (2) and (3), respectively, of section 202(e) of title 18, United States Code) as users of the system in accordance with subsection (b)(3).”
Sec. 5 Data Analytics
Section 5 of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012 (31 U.S.C. 3321 note), as amended by sections 3 and 4, is further amended by adding at the end the following:
“(h) Report on improper payments data analysis—Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of the Improper Payments Agency Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2014, the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to Congress a report which shall include a description of—
“(1) data analytics performed as part of the Do Not Pay Initiative for the purpose of detecting, preventing, and recovering improper payments through pre-award, post-award pre-payment, and post-payment analysis, which shall include a description of any analysis or investigations incorporating—
“(A) review and data matching of payments and beneficiary enrollment lists of State programs carried out using Federal funds for the purposes of identifying eligibility duplication, residency ineligibility, duplicate payments, or other potential improper payment issues;
“(B) review of multiple Federal agencies and programs for which comparison of data could show payment duplication; and
“(C) review of other information the Secretary of the Treasury determines could prove effective for identifying, preventing, or recovering improper payments, which may include investigation or review of information from multiple Federal agencies or programs; and
“(2) the metrics used in determining whether the analytic and investigatory efforts have reduced, or contributed to the reduction of, improper payments or improper awards.”