Improper payments by the federal government are costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year — more than a trillion, if you add them up over the years, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday. “These are payments that should not have been made or were made in the wrong amounts,” Dodaro said in his opening statement. The problem is growing, he said, from $125 billion in 2014; to $137 billion in 2015; to the most recent estimate of $144 billion in 2016. “This includes estimates for 112 programs at 22 federal agencies, so it is a...