Watch Kennedy’s comments here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today released the following statement marking the passage of his Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives:

“I want to talk to you about the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act. Boy, that’s a mouthful. Here’s what I want to talk about: Many Louisianians read the stories about the welfare fraud in Minnesota, and frankly in other states, and it makes them nauseous. I feel the same way. That’s why I have been working for years—literally years—to target welfare fraud, especially the fraudsters who conduct fraud in the name of deceased Americans.  

“In 2023 alone, for example, the federal government sent $1.3 billion . . . to dead people. . . . [T]he Social Security Administration . . . maintains a list of dead Americans known as the Death Master File. If someone dies, the state sends the name of the deceased person to the Social Security Administration, and that person’s name is listed on what’s called the Death Master File.

“We found that Social Security was not sharing this information—the names of the folks on the Death Master File—with the rest of the federal government. One branch of government wasn’t talking to another branch of government.”

. . . 

“I asked [the Social Security Administration], ‘Why don’t you talk to your colleagues and other colleagues in the federal government, so we stop paying dead people?’ Social Security told me it needed Congress’s permission to share this information with, for example, the Treasury Department so it could include the list of dead Americans in its Do Not Pay system.

“I didn’t argue with them. I said, ‘I’m just going to go pass a bill.’ Well, a few years ago, I did. I passed a bill called the Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act, and that bill allowed the Social Security Administration to temporarily share its Death Master File with the Department of the Treasury.”

. . .

“Well, it worked—duh. Since December of 2023, this bill has saved the federal government at least $330 million in improper payments. We’re no longer paying dead people and having their friends or relatives or whomever cash the checks.

“It was obvious that Congress needed to make this data-sharing arrangement permanent, so . . . I introduced a second bill to do just that. That’s why it took years to get this done. This week, I’m pleased to say the House passed my bill, the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act. This bill had already passed the Senate, and now that it’s passed the House, it’s on its way to President Trump’s desk so he can sign it into law.  

“Now, dead people don’t need welfare. I think that’s obvious. But I’m not going to stop with just this bill. I’m going to continue to urge my colleagues in the Senate and my friends in the House to pass another reconciliation bill—which we can do without Democratic votes, just like we did the One Big Beautiful Bill—to include the subject of welfare fraud. Welfare fraud: it’s inexcusable. It’s unconscionable.

“These are taxpayer dollars, and I’m not going to stop until we get it done.”

Watch Kennedy’s message here.