The record

LegislationLegislation· Jun 2026
HR 428 Passed House — in Senate

Sponsored by Charles J. "Chuck" Fleischmann (R)

Bonuses for Cost-Cutters and Fraud Preventers Act of 2026

Doubles the max cash bonus federal employees can earn for spotting wasteful spending or fraud.

Tradeoff

Increases incentives for federal workers to identify wasteful expenses and improper payments. Agencies must propose identified wasteful spending for budget cuts.

What's in it

See official bill text

Negligible federal cost, estimated between zero and $500,000 over the budget window.

The federal cost to administer this program is negligible (under $500K), but the policy's real impact depends entirely on whether higher bonuses actually motivate federal employees to identify and prevent fraud and waste that wouldn't otherwise be caught—something CBO cannot measure from available data.

H.R. 428, Bonuses for Cost-Cutters and Fraud Preventers Act of 2025 · Apr 2026

Passed the House by on June 8, 2026 — sitting in the Senate.

  1. House

    Introduced

    (Jan 15, 2025)

  2. House

    Committee on Oversight and Government Reform(Jan 15, 2025)

  3. House

    The committee voted to send it to the floor

    Reported 40 - 0(Mar 18, 2026)

  4. House

    Passage of the bill

    Passed by (Jun 8, 2026)

    No individual votes were recorded.

  5. Senate

    Received from the House

    on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs(Jun 9, 2026)