audit, finding that several agencies within the department of agriculture were involved in this. the natural resources conservation service for example, sent out more than 10 1/2 million dollars in payments between 08 and 2012 to more than a thousand people who had been dead for more than a year. the department's risk management agency which overseas crop insurance paid $22 million to 3400 people who have been dead at least two years. agriculture officials admit the agency needs to do a better job identifying who is alive and who is not. the gao's report suggests that the department actually begin using a database, called the death master file. that is the same list that the social security agency uses to i.d. dead people. sound like a good idea, don't you think, jon? jon: sound like it would be a pretty inexpensive way to save some money. >> reporter: a no-brainer. jon: hard to find that in government. thanks very much, rick folbaum.