The Treasury Department would be given authority to recover unclaimed federal assets, a move projected to save $85 million over 10 years, under government reform legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) on Friday.
Under the Recovering and Collecting Unclaimed Federal Property (RECOUP) Act, debt collection personnel within the Treasury Department would be given the authority to recover unclaimed federal assets currently being held by state governments and federal agencies.
“The RECOUP Act makes a simple and needed change that would result in big savings,” Fischer said. “With this bipartisan legislation, Congress can recover the money being wasted on unclaimed assets and help promote more efficient government spending for the American people.”
Unclaimed assets might include federal tax refunds, unclaimed accounts from liquidated national credit unions, Department of Veterans Affairs’ life insurance funds, Securities and Exchange Commission claims as a result of enforcement actions where individuals are owed money, refunds for people who have a Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage, among others.
In addition to giving the secretary of Treasury the ability to locate and recover federal assets, the RECOUP Act would enable the secretary to retain a portion of those assets to fund associated operational and administrative costs. Savings resulting from the bill would be transferred to the general fund for deficit reduction.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who introduced the bill with Fischer, said the government needs to start making “smart reforms” to reduce government waste and reclaim federal assets with the national debt exceeding $19 trillion.
“This legislation will save millions of dollars and is another step towards using taxpayer dollars more wisely,” Manchin said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this bipartisan, common sense legislation so we can continue to work towards a reasonable way to help reduce our deficit and focus on fiscal responsibility,” he said.