Edolphus Towns: “The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, H.R. 3393, provides the Federal Government with the tools needed to…”

“The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, H.R. 3393, provides the Federal Government with the tools needed to prevent mistakes and overpayments in the first place and recover funds that are paid in error. The bill requires agencies to develop and report corrective action plans based on measured error rates and creates incentives for meeting their goals and penalties for failure to meet their goals. Importantly, the bill also gives the agencies the means to go after the funds that they have overpaid, which will make the taxpayers, agencies, programs, and activities which relied on those appropriations whole. We are living in a time, Mr. Speaker, when our government is under extreme fiscal demands, and we need to do everything possible to ensure that every tax dollar goes to where it is needed.”