WaPo: USDA distributed over $1 billion to dead farmers

Deceased Farmers Got USDA Payments (HT: Instapundit and Don Surber):

By Sarah Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 23, 2007; Page A01

The U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed $1.1 billion over seven years to the estates or companies of deceased farmers and routinely failed to conduct reviews required to ensure that the payments were properly made, according to a government report.

In a selection of 181 cases from 1999 to 2005, the Government Accountability Office found that officials approved payments without any review 40 percent of the time...