Timely and Accurate Benefits Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1755 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1755

To require an income verification platform for certain Federal benefit 
                     funds, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require an income verification platform for certain Federal benefit 
                     funds, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

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.
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