Fraud against the government is massive. As just one example, the federal government sent $1.3 billion to dead people in 2023 alone. I have written before (here and here) about how preventable government waste, fraud, and abuse can be if only the government employed tools and techniques used and offered by the private sector. This includes data matching (more on that below).

To help reduce fraud against American taxpayers, the U.S. Senate recently passed the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act (EIPDPA), sponsored by Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The bill will improve coordination between Federal and State agencies and the Treasury Department’s Do Not Pay Working System (Do Not Pay or DNP). The Social Security Administration (SSA) maintains the most complete federal database of individuals who are reported to be deceased. However, only a few federal agencies have access to this official list, and most federal agencies rely on a list of deceased people that offers limited and untimely information.

In January 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that “it prevented and recovered more than $31 million in fraud and improper payments during a five-month pilot with the [SSA’s DMF].” Fiscal Assistant Secretary David Lebryk said that “[t]hese results are just the tip of the iceberg [and] Congress granting permanent access to the Full Death Master File will significantly reduce fraud, improve program integrity, and better safeguard taxpayer dollars.” The EIPDPA will do just that.

The EIPDPA also illustrates the power of data matching. Data matching plays a critical role in fraud prevention by comparing data from multiple and disparate sources, seeking inconsistencies, discrepancies, or suspicious patterns. This includes ensuring the federal government does not make a live payment to a deceased person when that payment was not rightfully owed.

A 2023 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) wrote that

“For the past several decades, data matching has enabled the use of government data to identify fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in benefit programs…Matches can be made using one or more data elements, such as name, address, email, bank account number, internet protocol address, or Social Security number (SSN).”

“If you open up the bank window and say, give me your application and just promise me you are who you say you are, you attract a lot of fraudsters, and that’s what happened here”

Some of the most egregious cases of fraud came during the pandemic, as reported by CRS. Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice, and the chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), said the lack of verification directly contributed to the $200 billion of estimated fraud in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) system and the Payment Protection Program (PPP).

“If you open up the bank window and say, give me your application and just promise me you are who you say you are, you attract a lot of fraudsters, and that’s what happened here,” Horowitz said.

As stated in the CRS report, “had data matching been used for such purposes to administer pandemic relief programs from the beginning, the risk of improper payments in pandemic relief programs might have been mitigated.”