The law incorporates recommendations based on recent investigations by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General, which found that recovery audits were useful in identifying and recovering improper payments, and in identifying important changes that agencies should make to prevent similar overpayments in the future.

Sen. Carper stated, "After a six year journey, I couldn't be happier that my bill, The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, is now law. It's a perfect example of common-sense bipartisan, bicameral legislation. This law provides the federal government with new tools to identify, recover, and hopefully prevent improper payments. The expanded use of these new tools to protect taxpayer money couldn't come at a better time as we work to reduce our national debt of over $13 trillion. I applaud the administration's concrete steps to improve transparency and make agencies and agency leadership more accountable. As I like to say, if it is not perfect, make it better. There is a lot more we can do, which is why this new law is so important, especially when it comes to actually going out and recovering the money we lose every year to avoidable errors and preventable fraud."