Last week, President Donald Trump signed the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act. Believe it or not, we actually needed a bill to end fraudulent payments to dead people.
And it took four years to get done.
“Using dead Americans to rip off taxpayers is as low as it gets,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who wrote the bill, said in a statement. “Many Americans have seen these scams play out across the country and are tired of watching these fraudsters game the system—so am I. That’s why I wrote this common-sense bill to end this outrageous abuse permanently, and I’m grateful President Trump signed it into law so we can ensure taxpayer dollars go to living Americans who actually need our help.”
Kennedy appeared on NewsNation this week and discussed the bill.
"The idea that we send billions of dollars to dead people, and they get cash. The checks get cashed. It's obviously a lot of fraud," Kennedy told NewsNation's Katie Pavlich.
When Pavlich asked if he was specifically talking about Social Security checks, Kennedy clarified: "No, we're talking about all kind of checks."
The root of the problem lay in bureaucratic turf-guarding. The Social Security Administration maintains a comprehensive list of deceased Americans but refused to share that information with other federal agencies, including the Department of Treasury. Kennedy's attempts to reason with the agency hit a brick wall of excuses, prompting him to write the bill.
"I went to them, and I said, 'Why won't you tell Treasury who the dead people are?' And Social Security said, 'Well, we don't have the legal authority.' And I said, 'Sure you do,' and they said, 'No, we don't.' So I knew I wasn't gonna get anywhere with them, so I had to go pass a bill," Kennedy explained.
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The reason the bill took four years to become law, believe it or not, was that he faced opposition, which Kennedy found hard to believe. But his persistence paid off.
Kennedy being Kennedy, he couldn't resist a dig at the state of American elections while discussing his legislative achievement: "And so far as I can tell, dead people can still vote, but they can't cash checks ... 'cause we're not gonna be sending them to them anymore, and it's gonna save billions and billions and billions of dollars."
Kennedy also delivered some harsh criticism of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. According to Kennedy, state cooperation on fraud prevention varies wildly, and Walz falls into the non-cooperating category.
“Well, every state is different,” he said. “Some state governors cooperate, some of them don't. Governor Walz didn't cooperate. He knew about this fraud. He knew all about it. And he lied about it."
Then came the trademark Kennedy zinger: “I’m sorry. Uh, no offense to the governor, but he learned to lie before he learned to talk."
Senator John Kennedy just delivered over two straight minutes of pitch-perfect “Kennedyisms” on NewsNation.
— Overton (@overton_news) February 13, 2026
As @KatiePavlich sat across from Kennedy, she couldn’t help but crack up at times.
KENNEDY: “The idea that we send billions of dollars to dead people and they get cashed.… pic.twitter.com/S47Ka6LEKB
I’m not sure what’s worse: the fact that we needed a bill to stop paying dead people or the fact that a bill to stop paying dead people met resistance.
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