USDA’s Risk Management Agency recently announced the improper payment rate — a closely-watched standardized measure of waste and abuse required of all major federal spending programs – fell sharply last year for crop insurance. The rate dropped to a new level of 2.20 percent, representing a 62 percent drop from the prior year’s 5.58 percent.

Ken Ackerman, a former Administer for USDA’s Risk Management Agency and now a Washington D.C. based legal counsel, recently wrote a blog post explaining why that  drop matters.