Members of Congress reviewing more than $200 billion in improper payments by federal agencies

WASHINGTON — In 2023, hundreds of billions were spent in improper payments by federal agencies.

The taxpayer dollars either should not have been paid or were paid in incorrect amounts, according to a new government report.

Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Samantha Manning breaks down a hearing in U.S. Congress about the status of improper federal payments, fraud and ways to better protect taxpayer money and ensure it doesn’t go to waste.

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The dollar amount showing hundreds of billions of dollars are lost each year because of federal agencies making mistakes comes from a new watchdog report and follows after a Channel 2 Action News investigation showed how billions of dollars in Social Security overpayments have impacted millions of Americans.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, federal agencies made $236 billion worth of incorrect payments across 71 different programs.

“To safeguard federal funds, it’s critical to reduce fraud and improper payments—payments that should not have been made or were made in an incorrect amount. We estimated that the federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud alone,” the office said in a statement. They also testified before Congress on Tuesday.

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At a hearing on the improper payments, Orice Williams Brown from USGAO said “Any dollar that is improperly paid or defrauded results in one less dollar going to an eligible beneficiary or for another beneficial purpose.”

The report found that programs like Medicare and Medicaid, unemployment insurance and the Social Security Administration’s Supplemental Security Income program were all impacted.

The news comes after a Cox Media Group and KFF Health News investigation exposed that billions of dollars in Social Security overpayments had occurred, and then the federal government took action to claw that money back from the millions of recipients.

In response to the improper payments, some experts have called for more accountability from a agency leaders, and for Congress to invest more in fraud prevention.

“We all know that adding more money to a problem is often not Congress’ favorite way to solve a problem, but we do know the return in investment on fraud prevention is positive and in many cases many, many, many times over the dollars invested,” Linda Miller, Program Integrity Alliance, told Channel 2 Action News.

In 2021, Congress created a data program dedicated to investigating pandemic-related fraud, but funding for it is set to end by next September.

The leaders running the data program say Congress should keep it going, and use it to investigate non-pandemic-related overpayments too.

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