Sen. Carper Lauds Administration for Cutting Billions of Dollars in Improper Payments

WASHINGTON – Today, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, lauded the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) announcement that the Obama Administration has so far avoided over $47 billion in improper payments during the past three years and decreased its error rate to 4.3 percent. The announcement made today, is fueled by decreases in payment errors in Medicaid, unemployment insurance and other major federal programs.
 
In July 2010, President Obama signed Sen. Carper’s bill, Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA), into law. In July 2011, Sen. Carper introduced the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012 which builds on the important work started by IPERA and makes the provisions in that Act stronger and more effective in order to better ensure that agency budgets are being spent properly and effectively.  The 2012 bill passed the Senate on August 2 and is now awaiting passage in the House of Representatives.
 
“I am encouraged by the continuing work by the Administration to rein in improper payments across the government,” said Sen. Carper. “By making this issue a priority and by investing the proper resources, the Administration has shown that we can generate real savings and make real progress in our ongoing effort to eliminate improper payments. Although we have made great strides in curbing improper payments in the past two years, we still have a ways to go to improve transparency and make agencies and agency leadership more accountable – while better protecting our scarce taxpayer dollars. The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010, which the President signed into law two years ago, is an important tool in our shed, and my most recent bill, the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012, takes it to the next level and makes it stronger, more robust and more effective at preventing and recovering improper payments. I will continue to work with my Congressional colleagues and the Administration, as I have done for the past eight years, to see that these measures are properly and efficiently implemented.”
 
For more information on the Administration’s announcement, please click here.
 
For Agency improper payment data, please visit www.paymentaccuracy.gov  
                                                                     
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