Overpayments bill clears Senate panel

A bill to require special recovery audits in an attempt to return to the government billions of dollars that were overpaid to contractors and others won approval Wednesday in the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

The bill (S. 3030) would require annual audits if payments by agencies exceeded $500 million a year as a way to track any overpayments that the government should recover.

It was approved by voice vote.

A similar bill (H.R. 1827) already has passed the House.