H.R. 10326

PROOF Act

Sponsor: Jefferson Van Drew · 0 cosponsors

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Official summary

Written by the Congressional Research Service.

Preventing Rip-offs and Obtaining Oversight of Funds Act or the PROOF Act

This bill requires states to provide such information as the Department of Justice (DOJ) may require for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting alleged fraud committed with regard to certain federally funded programs.

Programs covered by this requirement include:

  • Medicaid,
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),
  • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),
  • certain federal payments and grants to state governments related to the coronavirus response, and
  • any other program to which funds are made available to states and identified by DOJ as vulnerable to fraud.

A federal agency may only use such information for law enforcement purposes related to fraud and may not disclose it for any unrelated administrative or commercial purpose.

DOJ must annually report to Congress on the number of requests for information issued to state agencies under this bill, the programs with respect to which such requests were made, and the number of fraud investigations initiated and convictions secured using the information obtained.

Text of the bill

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Sec. 3. Information protection and privacy safeguards Since introduced

(a) Compliance with privacy laws. The Attorney General shall handle all information obtained under section 2 in accordance with section 552a of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the Privacy Act of 1974), and, where applicable, the regulations promulgated under section 264(c) of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 1320d–2 note).

(b) Security protocol. The Attorney General shall establish information security protocols to ensure that information transferred from a State agency—

(1) is encrypted using industry-standard protocols;

(2) may only be accessed by authorized personnel; and

(3) is destroyed and permanently removed from any database upon the conclusion of the relevant legal proceedings or investigation.

(c) Limitation on use. A Federal agency may only use information obtained under this Act for law enforcement purposes related to fraud, and may not disclose such information for any unrelated administrative or commercial purpose.