February 27, 2025
Mr. Timmons (for himself, Ms. Greene of Georgia, and Mr. Fallon) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
To require an income verification platform for certain Federal benefit funds, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Timely and Accurate Benefits Act
.
Sec. 2. Requirements of States; Enhanced Income Verification Platform Required
To be eligible to receive Federal funds for a covered Federal benefit program, a State, not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, shall procure, contract, and use an Enhanced Income Verification Platform.
Sec. 3. Definitions
In this Act:
(1) Covered Federal benefit program
The term covered Federal benefit program
means any program administered by the Federal government, or by a State or local government using Federal funds, in which eligibility for benefits, or the amount of benefits, is determined, in whole or in part, based on the income of an individual or household.
(2) Enhanced Gross Income
The term enhanced gross income
means—
(A)
wages, salaries, tips included and not included on pay stubs, and other compensation from all forms of employment, including traditional W–2 employment not provided by existing data sources, contract work, self-employment, and participation in the gig economy;
(B)
unemployment compensation;
(C)
Social Security benefits, including retirement, disability, and survivor benefits;
(D)
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments;
(E)
interest and dividends;
(F)
short-term and long-term rental income;
(G)
royalties;
(H)
child support and alimony payments received;
(I)
cash assistance from government programs;
(J)
regular or recurring gifts or contributions from individuals or organizations;
(K)
distributions from trusts or estates;
(L)
any other source of income, whether taxable or non-taxable, that is available to the individual or household to meet their needs, as determined by the Secretary; and
(M)
other income identified and verified through consumer-permissioned direct access to deposit account transaction data.
(3) Enhanced Income Verification Platform
The term Enhanced Income Verification Platform
means—
(A)
services incorporating automated, real-time data matching and analytics to proactively identify and verify potential instances of unreported or underreported enhanced gross income, inconsistent income reporting, or other indicators of potential ineligibility or improper payments;
(B)
receiving and analyzing applicant-permissioned deposit account transactional data that identifies and verifies sources of enhanced gross income not currently obtained through existing data sources that provide for payroll, new-hire and latent State and Federal tax data, with the option for the claimant to review and attest to the accuracy of the data; and
(C)
the ability to identify and consolidate overlapping data to avoid double-counting of financial records.
(4) State
The term State
means each of the several States, the District of Columbia, and each territory and possession of the United States.