# H.R. 8464 (119th): Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act

Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act This bill establishes requirements to prevent fraudulent or improper payments from federal programs. Specifically, the bill directs executive agencies to take corrective actions to temporarily pause, condition, or segment payment voucher requests before certifying them if the agencies have sufficient reason to determine that the payments present elevated risks of fraud or improper payments resulting in financial loss to the government. The corrective actions must be (1) based on objective, documented fraud-risk indicators; (2) narrowly applied to the portion of the payments presenting the elevated risk; and (3) limited in duration to the minimum period necessary to verify the eligibility or accuracy of the payments. The Department of the Treasury must return certified payment vouchers to agencies for corrective action if they present an elevated risk of fraud based on an output of Treasury’s Do Not Pay system. The bill also prohibits officers or employees of the federal government from being personally liable for actions taken in good faith under this bill.

## How this bill is scored

Tier: no Tier 1 record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Lane: abuse_accountability. Category: justice_truth. Lane tag: general equity.
Lane: benefits_administration. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: due_process. Category: justice_truth. Lane tag: general equity.
Lane: fraud_prevention. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: program_integrity. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Tier 1 sign-off: no record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Stored polarity: mixed. Only tags the rules mark scoreable on a mixed bill are scored. A yea can draw a penalty or a credit according to the tag. A nay on a tag scored as good can draw a penalty.
Roll 219: On Motion to Recommit. Vote type: recommit.
Roll 220: On Passage. Vote type: final_passage.
Polarity rationale: Reviewed enrichment (llm_import) polarity: The bill restrains fraud and improper payments, a real wrong against the public treasury, through objective, narrow, and time-limited controls. Those are prudential governance measures, though, and the bill lacks express hearing rights or notice requirements for payments paused on risk indicators, and it adds officer immunity. Ordinary program-integrity goods combined with real equity concerns make this mixed rather than clearly good or evil.
Theological note: Scripture commends faithful stewardship of resources entrusted to public office and condemns fraud and dishonest gain, so the bill touches real concerns about honest use of public funds. Its measures are administrative and prudential, however, and they carry a due-process question about delayed payments to eligible persons. Issue relevance lies in equity, honest weights and measures, and protection of the innocent, not in a direct moral verdict on the bill.

## Recorded votes

Roll 219: On Motion to Recommit. Yea 209 · Nay 213 · Other 9.
Roll 220: On Passage. Yea 218 · Nay 200 · Other 13.

HTML: https://justmeasure.org/bill/hr-8464-119/