“Stated support for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution and pledged to continue working to end waste, duplicative programs, and improper payments.”
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All three cited sources were reachable and support the outcome, and the quotes appear (verbatim in two primary sources; the secondary source's "$1.3 billion to dead people" quote is verbatim and its compound-quote lead clause is a faithful paraphrase, not a fabrication). CHAMPIONED is justified by real legislative leadership: Kennedy authored the "Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act," which passed the Senate unanimously (Sept 2025), passed the House (Jan 2026), and was signed into law by President Trump (Feb 11, 2026), permanently authorizing SSA to share its Death Master File with Treasury's Do Not Pay system. Authoring and shepherding a bill to enactment directly advances the promise's operative pledge to "continue working to end waste... and improper payments," exceeding a mere kept vote. He also secured 2018 Senate approval of amendments targeting $4.1B in Department of Labor improper payments. On the Balanced Budget Amendment prong he cosponsored but the BBA never advanced; a BBA is structurally near-impossible to enact and cosponsorship is the meaningful available action. Confidence is held at 0.8 rather than higher because CHAMPIONED rests primarily on the improper-payments component while the BBA half remains unenacted; a grader emphasizing the unfulfilled BBA could reasonably rate FULL/PARTIAL.
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