The Treasury Department stopped $175 million from reaching dead people. This happened in fiscal year 2026. That is a sharp jump from earlier numbers. Just months before, they found only $99 million. The change comes from stricter checks on federal payments. The Trump administration pushed for these new rules. They wanted to protect taxpayer money from waste. The results show the system is working better now.
Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana praised the effort. He said the government should not pay the dead. He fought for years to pass a law on this. His bill made it permanent. Before this, access to death records was temporary. The law started in December 2023. It gave Treasury access to Social Security data. This allowed them to check names against death records. The goal was to stop fraudsters from gaming the system.
The numbers tell a clear story of improvement. Treasury screened over 1.1 billion payments. These payments totaled about $3.7 trillion. They found 13,500 payments that were wrong. These went to people who had died. The money was returned to the government. It never reached the ineligible recipients. This is a big win for the average taxpayer. Every dollar saved is a dollar not wasted.
Secretary Scott Bessent highlighted the new tools. He said they use better data and technology. The goal is prevention, not just chasing money later. He called this a shift in how the government works. In the past, they paid first and asked questions later. Now they verify before sending the cash. The access to safety tools expanded massively. It went from 4 percent of programs to 99 percent. This means almost every agency can check for fraud.
The volume of checks also increased dramatically. They screened 2.3 billion records last year. That is nearly four times more than before. The previous year saw only 641 million records checked. The expansion covers more federal programs now. States are also getting additional screenings. New safeguards verify bank accounts belong to the right people. They also check Taxpayer Identification Numbers. These checks started working fully in late September. They flag bad payments before the money moves.
The administration framed this as a war on waste. They want to tighten safeguards around all federal spending. The executive order from March 2025 drove these changes. It required stronger controls against fraud and abuse. The results from July showed early progress. Then the final numbers for the year came in. The $175 million figure reflects the full impact. It shows what happens when the government stops looking away. The system now catches errors before they become losses. Taxpayers see the benefit in reduced waste. The data proves the new approach works.