S-1333-116
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 126.
What it does
This bill would require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to reimburse states for the reasonable costs of compiling and sharing death records with the SSA — something the SSA currently may do but is not required to do. It would also direct the Office of Management and Budget to develop guidance for federal agencies that collect death data, and require the Departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services to jointly create a plan to help states, local agencies, and tribal governments share that data more effectively.
Who benefits
Federal and state benefit programs that would reduce payments made to deceased individuals. Taxpayers broadly, through reduced improper spending of federal funds. State governments and tribal agencies, which would receive reimbursement for costs they currently may bear themselves. Legitimate benefit recipients, whose programs may face less scrutiny or funding pressure if improper payments are reduced.
Who is hurt
Individuals or households that may have been — intentionally or unintentionally — receiving benefits on behalf of a deceased person, as those payments would be more likely to be identified and stopped. State and local agencies that currently receive voluntary SSA reimbursements may face administrative burden in meeting new federal data-sharing requirements. Federal agencies would face new compliance and planning obligations.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that the federal government loses billions of dollars each year to improper payments made to deceased individuals, and that this bill addresses a root cause: incomplete and inconsistently shared death records. By making SSA reimbursement of state costs mandatory rather than optional, the bill would give states a reliable financial incentive to compile and submit accurate, timely death data. Better data sharing across federal agencies — guided by OMB and coordinated by Treasury and HHS — would allow programs like Social Security, Medicare, and federal tax administration to stop payments faster and recover funds more efficiently. Supporters contend this is a fiscally responsible, administratively straightforward fix that protects the integrity of programs that millions of Americans depend on.
Opponents argue
Opponents argue that while reducing improper payments is a worthy goal, mandating SSA reimbursements to states creates a new, open-ended federal spending obligation without a clear cap or accountability mechanism for how states define "reasonable costs." Critics may also contend that expanding the sharing of sensitive death record data across federal agencies, states, local governments, and tribal entities raises privacy concerns and increases the risk of data breaches or misuse. Others argue that the bill's reliance on OMB guidance and interagency planning — rather than concrete statutory requirements — may produce bureaucratic processes that are slow to implement and difficult to enforce, ultimately failing to deliver the improper-payment reductions its title promises.
Constitutional context
The bill operates primarily under Congress's Taxing and Spending Clause authority (Art. I, Sec. 8), as it directs federal agencies to reimburse states and develop spending guidance. The cooperative federal-state data-sharing structure implicates the Spending Clause framework examined in NFIB v. Sebelius (2012), particularly questions about whether conditions attached to federal funds are coercive. The involvement of HHS and Treasury in directing state and tribal data practices also touches on anti-commandeering principles. The post-Loper Bright environment means that OMB guidance developed under this bill would be subject to independent judicial review rather than judicial deference.
Checks and balances
The executive branch — specifically OMB, Treasury, and HHS — would gain new directive authority to develop guidance and plans governing how federal and state agencies collect and share death data. Congress retains oversight through its appropriations power over SSA reimbursements to states. State governments gain a new entitlement to reimbursement, shifting some financial leverage toward them in the federal-state data-sharing relationship.
Historical precedent
The Do Not Pay Working System (established under the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012) similarly sought to consolidate federal data — including death records — to prevent improper payments across agencies, representing a prior legislative effort to address the same underlying problem.