HB 979 — An Act amending Title 71 (State Government) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, providing for the assessment of improper payments by Commonwealth agencies and for public information on payments and programs of Commonwealth agencies.

PRINTER'S NO.   1062

                     THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA



                         HOUSE BILL
                         No. 979
                                                   Session of
                                                     2025

     INTRODUCED BY GAYDOS, KRUPA, M. MACKENZIE AND GROVE,
        MARCH 19, 2025

     REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, MARCH 19, 2025


                                     AN ACT
 1   Amending Title 71 (State Government) of the Pennsylvania
 2      Consolidated Statutes, providing for the assessment of
 3      improper payments by Commonwealth agencies and for public
 4      information on payments and programs of Commonwealth
 5      agencies.
 6      The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
 7   hereby enacts as follows:
 8      Section 1.     Title 71 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
 9   Statutes is amended by adding a part to read:
10                                   PART I
11                           COMMONWEALTH AGENCIES
12   Chapter
13      1.     Preliminary Provisions (Reserved)
14      3.     Assessment of Improper Payments
15                                 CHAPTER 1
16                           PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS
17                                 (Reserved)
18                                 CHAPTER 3
19                      ASSESSMENT OF IMPROPER PAYMENTS
 1   Sec.
 2   301.   Definitions.
 3   302.   Assessment of improper payments.
 4   303.   Public information on payments and programs of
 5                  Commonwealth agencies.
 6   § 301.   Definitions.
 7      The following words and phrases when used in this chapter
 8   shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
 9   context clearly indicates otherwise:
10      "Commonwealth agency."     A board, commission or department of
11   the executive branch under the policy supervision and
12   jurisdiction of the Governor. The term does not include any of
13   the following:
14            (1)   The Treasury Department.
15            (2)   The Department of the Auditor General.
16            (3)   The Office of Attorney General.
17      "Improper payment."     A payment that should not have been made
18   by a Commonwealth agency or a contractor with a Commonwealth
19   agency under statutory, contractual, administrative or other
20   legal applicable requirements, including any of the following:
21            (1)   An overpayment.
22            (2)   An underpayment.
23            (3)   A payment to an ineligible recipient.
24            (4)   A payment for an ineligible service.
25            (5)   A payment for a duplicative or redundant service.
26            (6)   A payment for services not received.
27            (7)   A payment for goods and services that does not
28      utilize or was not given available discounts.
29      "Payment."     A payment, including a commitment for a future
30   payment, that is made by a Commonwealth agency or a contractor

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 1   with a Commonwealth agency and utilizes Federal or State funds.
 2   § 302.   Assessment of improper payments.
 3      (a)   Assessment.--No less than once every two years, a
 4   Commonwealth agency shall conduct an assessment of improper
 5   payments on any program which is not required under Federal law.
 6   A Commonwealth agency shall conduct an initial assessment of
 7   improper payments no later than 120 days after the effective
 8   date of this subsection.
 9      (b)   Contents.--As part of the assessment under subsection
10   (a), a Commonwealth agency shall:
11            (1)   Determine whether the programs operated by the
12      Commonwealth agency have a low, moderate or high risk of
13      resulting in improper payments based on each program's total
14      amount of improper payments in dollars and total improper
15      payments as a percentage of each program's total
16      expenditures.
17            (2)   Explain the reasons why the programs operated by the
18      Commonwealth have been assessed as having a low, moderate or
19      high risk of resulting in improper payments.
20            (3)   Discover and report the root causes of improper
21      payments within high-risk programs.
22            (4)   Utilize statistical sampling and extrapolation to
23      calculate an improper payment error rate for high-risk
24      programs.
25            (5)   Adopt a corrective action plan to reduce improper
26      payment error rates to no more than 3% for high-risk programs
27      for the next occurring biennial assessment.
28      (c)   Copies.--A Commonwealth agency shall provide an
29   electronic copy of the assessment under subsection (a) to all of
30   the following:

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 1            (1)   The Secretary of the Budget.
 2            (2)   The Office of the Inspector General.
 3            (3)   The Department of the Auditor General.
 4            (4)   The Independent Fiscal Office.
 5            (5)   Members of the General Assembly.
 6   § 303.   Public information on payments and programs of
 7                  Commonwealth agencies.
 8      The Office of the Budget shall maintain a publicly accessible
 9   Internet website and update the website to inform the public of,
10   at a minimum, all of the following information:
11            (1)   Each Commonwealth agency's biennial improper payment
12      assessments.
13            (2)   Each Commonwealth agency's total improper payments
14      in dollar value and total improper payment error rate.
15            (3)   Each Commonwealth agency's high-risk program, the
16      dollar value of improper payments for each high-risk program
17      and the improper payment error rate percentage for each high-
18      risk program.
19            (4)   Each Commonwealth agency's high-risk program
20      corrective action plan and a summary status of completing the
21      corrective action plan.
22            (5)   The recovery of improper payments for each program
23      in total dollars and by percentage.
24      Section 2.     This act shall take effect in 120 days.




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