U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) scored a major win in the fight against government waste this week when his ZOMBIE Act cleared the House, forcing federal agencies to hunt down improper payments before taxpayer dollars walk out the door.
The scale of the problem is staggering. A Government Accountability Office report released in April found federal agencies burned through at least $186 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2025 alone, a $24 billion spike from the year before. Medicare and Medicaid drove the bulk of the damage, accounting for $94 billion in bad payouts. Since the GAO started tracking the hemorrhaging in 2003, the total has topped $3 trillion.
Palmer’s bill lands as the Trump administration wages a broader war on government fraud through the Department of Government Efficiency. Congressional Republicans have made rooting out waste a central piece of the fiscal agenda, and the ZOMBIE Act gives agencies a concrete set of tools to back up the rhetoric.
The Zeroing Out Monetary Benefits Improperly Expended Act, the ZOMBIE Act, rewrites the rules.
The bill forces agencies to run ongoing fraud risk assessments, adopt the GAO Fraud Risk Framework, and verify payments through the federal Do Not Pay database before cutting a single check. It also requires agencies to estimate their own financial losses from bad payments and sit down annually with Inspectors General and the U.S. Treasury to coordinate.
“For too long, billions of taxpayer dollars have been lost to improper payments and fraud because federal agencies have failed to identify risks before money goes out the door,” Palmer said. “The House passage of the ZOMBIE Act is an important step toward addressing this problem by requiring agencies to take a proactive approach to preventing waste, fraud, and abuse. I appreciate my colleagues for supporting this commonsense reform and look forward to seeing the Senate follow suit.”
The bill now heads to the Senate.
Sawyer Knowles is a state and political reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].
