OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
9:57 AM – Tuesday, July 21, 2026
The United States Department of the Treasury (USDT) has blocked nearly $100 million of taxpayer funds from being disbursed to deceased individuals after an executive order (EO) from President Donald Trump implemented a new verification system.
On Tuesday, the USDT and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service announced the new process screened more than 885 million federal payments worth nearly $2.7 trillion to weed out false or fraudulent payments.
“Treasury has delivered on a key promise of President Trump’s mandate to stop improper payments and fraud before money leaves the Treasury and strengthen the integrity of the federal payment system,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated on Tuesday. “Together with Vice President [JD] Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, this new safeguard addresses a longstanding vulnerability and helps ensure every dollar the federal government spends reaches its intended recipient.”
“Treasury will continue efforts to modernize the federal payment system, strengthen safeguards against fraud and improper payments, and protect taxpayer dollars,” Bessent continued.
In March 2025, Trump signed EO 14249 “Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste and Abuse.” Since then, USDT expanded government efforts to detect and prevent improper payments with the “Do Not Pay program and new payment verification tools.”
The Do Not Pay program confirms a recipient’s identity, eligibility and bank account information before allowing any federal payments to be issued.
The screening process has thus far identified over 4,900 payments worth about $99 million where the payees were dead. The payments were reversed back to their government agencies for review before disbursements were completed.
The process relies on the USDT’s newly expanded access to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Full Death Master File, granted by Trump’s order.
In February, Congress also passed, and the president subsequently signed into law, the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act, permanently allowing the Treasury Department access to the SSA’s death records.
The department has projected a gain of $330 million in net benefits through the reduction of fraudulent payments to deceased individuals.
The announcement is the latest in the Trump administration’s push to slash waste and fraud in government spending. In March, Trump signed EO 14395 “Establishing the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud,” to create a task force led by Vice President Vance. Since then, the administration has announced charges against multiple actors accused of falsely billing Medicare and Medicaid programs for services that were never provided, enriching themselves and leaving vulnerable patients without care.
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