New DOGE bill would target more than $200B in annual improper payments from safety nets, lawmaker says
EXCLUSIVE: A new DOGE-centric bill will be introduced Monday targeting overpayments by the federal government, which the lawmaker sponsoring it says have added up to the trillions since the George W. Bush era.
The Payment Integrity Information Reform Act (PIIA) will go "hand-in-hand" with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government, according to Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa.
Meuser, chairman of the oversight panel of the House Financial Services Committee and a member of the House DOGE Caucus, said Monday that the "DOGE team" writ-large has uncovered $55 billion in waste in only one month and that the PIIA Reform Act would dig even deeper.
"The federal government expended $236 billion last year in improper payments—money sent out improperly due to fraud, bureaucratic errors, and agencies failing to maintain eligibility integrity. "This is a gross failure of accountability that hardworking American taxpayers should not tolerate," he said.
If passed, the bill could account for nearly one-quarter of the $1 trillion that DOGE writ-large has expressed the goal of exposing, recouping or saving on taxpayers' behalf.
The act would look to improve payment integrity laws and particularly target overpayments for social safety net programs, which have been in the news lately for similar issues.
In 2023, federal agencies estimated $236 billion in improper payments were disbursed, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). That sum accounted for funds from 71 different government programs.
More than $44 billion of that year's share was also categorized as "unknown payments."
"The Payment Information Integrity Reform Act will put an end to this careless mismanagement at federal agencies by strengthening oversight, enforcing tougher penalties for noncompliance, and demanding accountability at every level," Meuser said.
"The American people deserve government agencies that manage their money more responsibly and the House GOP remains committed to working with President Trump and DOGE to rein in spending and ensure tax dollars are spent as intended."
The GAO further reported that improper 2023 Medicaid and Medicare payments accounted for $50 billion each, with COVID-19 unemployment assistance accounting for $43 billion.
While down $11 billion from 2022, that $236 billion was parcel to about $2.7 billion collectively disbursed incorrectly or erroneously since 2003.
Meuser said the improper payment calculations are likely conservative estimates and that the total figure is unknown, given agencies' systemic noncompliance with such payment integrity laws.
Last week, both DOGE leader Elon Musk and President Donald Trump remarked that some Social Security beneficiaries are listed as being older than the oldest known humans on the planet.
"According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!," Musk wrote on X. "Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security."
Per Musk, there are 20 million beneficiaries with a listed age of older than 100 years, with about 1 million who were still alive during Reconstruction.
Fox News Digital also reached out to House DOGE Chairman Aaron Bean, R-Fla., for comment.
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