Watchdog Warns Biden-Harris Admin Nearing $1 Trillion in Improper Payments

A new report by government watchdog Open The Books warns that the Biden-Harris administration is poised to surpass $1 trillion in improper payments before the end of President Joe Biden’s first term, setting a new record for government waste. Improper payments funds made to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason have ballooned under the current administration, with nearly $800 billion misspent in the last three fiscal years alone.

Improper payments include underpayments, overpayments, administrative errors, and cases of fraud. According to Open The Books, taxpayer dollars are being squandered at an alarming rate of $7,500 per second, or $450,000 every minute. At this pace, the administration is on track to break the record for the highest amount of improper payments in a single presidential term, highlighting the lack of accountability in government spending.

“Leadership occasionally pays lip service to tamping down improper payments, but it’s obvious: the more we spend, the more mistakes get made,” a spokesman for the watchdog explained. He stressed the need for greater oversight and better tools for Congress to address the waste.

A significant portion of these improper payments came from federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which accounted for $101.5 billion in erroneous spending in 2023 alone 43% of the year’s total improper payments. COVID-era relief programs also played a major role, with the Department of Labor’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program combining for $66.4 billion in improper payments.

Further examples of government waste include $295 million in retirement payments sent to deceased individuals and $171 million paid to prisoners. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was also responsible for $25 billion in faulty tax credits, with $546 million going to families who falsely claimed they had more children than they actually did.

Despite the scale of the problem, only $51 billion about 29% of overpayments has been recovered in 2023 so far. The sheer size of the waste has prompted calls for action, with one Open The Books spokesperson pointing out, “We fund the Pentagon for a full year on less than what the Biden administration is on track to have misspent. How much lost taxpayer money would finally embarrass leadership into action?”

The situation may be even worse than reported. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has indicated that improper payment estimates may not fully capture instances of fraud involving complex schemes or falsified documents. A GAO report from February 2024 noted that these figures likely underestimate the true extent of fraud.

Improper payments have been a long-standing issue in the federal government, with Open The Books reporting that $2.9 trillion in improper payments were made between 2004 and 2022. The sum has now surpassed $3 trillion, and the situation shows no signs of improvement under the current administration.

In response to the growing concern, a bipartisan proposal known as the Improper Payments Transparency Act seeks to curtail wasteful spending. The bill would require federal agencies with over $100 million in expenditures to provide more comprehensive reporting on improper payments and track them over a three-year period to identify trends.

As improper payments continue to rise, American taxpayers are left questioning when real accountability will come to Washington.

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