FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010
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Politics & The Nation Thousands of stimulus checks were sent in error, report says SSA spokesmanMark Lassiter
Social Security agency paid people who were dead or jailed
BY ED O'KEEFE The federal government last
year sent about 89,000 checks of $250 each to dead or incarcerat- ed people through the Obama administration’s economic stim- ulus program, according to a watchdog report. The Social Security Adminis-
tration distributed about $13 billion to 52million eligible ben- eficiaries in the form of $250 checks as part of the economic recovery program. The program cost a total of $814 billion. Most of the payments were issued properly, but the SSA failed to check all available payment re- cords or was unaware that bene- ficiaries had died, according to a report by the Social Security Office of Inspector General. Although the SSA lacks the
authority to recoup most of the money, the report estimates that slightly more than half of the payments have been returned. About 71,600 recipients were
dead before the SSA certified their payments, receiving a total of $18 million, according to the report. An additional 17,300 in- mates received a total of $4.3million. Most of the inmates were
eligible to receive checks because the American Recovery and Re- investment Act prohibited pay- ments only to people incarcerat- ed in the three months before it passed, which was November 2008 to January 2009. The SSA maintains conviction records and is normally required to sus- pend payments to incarcerated beneficiaries, the report said. The agency already had rec-
ords formore than 63,000 of the deceased beneficiaries who re- ceived payments, according to the report. An additional 8,200 payments to dead people were sent to Prouty beneficiaries, or people too old to have worked long enough after passage of the Social Security Act. Their deaths were generally not reported to SSA, the report said.
Rangel, Waters trials to start after elections
ASSOCIATED PRESS Ethics trials for two promi-
nent House Democrats will take place after the November elec- tions, the chairman of the cham- ber’s ethics committee an- nounced Thursday night. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.)
said in a written statement that the five Republicans on the 10- member panel blindsided her last week when they publicly requested that Reps. Charles B. Rangel (N.Y.) andMaxineWaters (Calif.) be tried before the Nov. 2 midterms. While Rangel and Waters had
also requested pre-election pro- ceedings, Lofgren said that Re- publicans went public without her approval, despite numerous bipartisan meetings to reach a consensus. She called the Repub- lican unilateral statement un- precedented. Rangel is a seniormember and
former chairman of the tax-writ- ingWays andMeans Committee, while Waters has a senior posi- tion on the Financial Services Committee. Their trials, officially called adjudicatory hearings, will begin Nov. 15 for Rangel and Nov. 29 forWaters. The hearings will determine
whether the lawmakers violated standards of conduct. Rangel is accused of financial and fund- raising improprieties andWaters is charged with improperly help- ing a bank where her husband has an investment. The ethics committee’s attor-
neys must demonstrate to eight committeemembers — sitting as judges — that there is clear and convincing evidence of ethical violations. If violations are proved, the
ethics committee would conduct a hearing on punishment. The committee could issue a report criticizing themember’s conduct or recommend greater punish- ment to the full House — includ- ing a vote to censure a lawmaker or, in rare cases, expulsion.
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said: “Inaccurate payments are unacceptable. Social Security’s Recovery Act payments were 99.8 percent accurate, and we quickly collected the majority of the inaccurate payments.” The Recovery Act did not give
the SSA or the Treasury Depart- ment the authority to reclaim erroneous payments made through electronic funds trans- fers to deceased beneficiaries, but it could recoup checks, the
report said. “These findings are yet anoth-
er example of congressional stu- pidity and a lack of accountabili- ty,” said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok- la.), a frequent critic of federal spending. He blasted Congress for failing to grant the SSA the authority to recover all errone- ous payments. Thewatchdog reportwas pub-
lished Sept. 30, a day before the White House released a report asserting that the stimulus pro-
gram is coming in on time, underbudget and with few claims of fraud or abuse. Aides to Vice President Biden, who is charged with overseeing the re- covery program, did not respond to requests for comment. The controversial stimulus
package has been criticized for being too big and not helping to hold the line on unemployment, and alternately for not being large enough to offer greater assistance in an ailing economy.
Many economists, however, have credited it and other initiatives with having eased the recession. In general, the federal govern-
ment misspent almost $110 bil- lion in fiscal 2009 by sending benefits checks to dead people, responding to fraudulent Medi- care and Medicaid claims and overpaying government contrac- tors. In the past three years, agencies have issued 20,000 sep- arate benefits payments totaling $182 million to dead people,
according to the Office of Man- agement and Budget. In June, President Obama or-
dered the establishment of a government-wide “do not pay” database to ensure that agencies no longer sendmoney to dead or incarcerated people and de- barred or suspended contracting firms. He also signed a law in July that penalizes agencies for failing to detect and stop such payments.
ed.okeefe@washingtonpost.com
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