in effect
This is Executive Order 14249, signed March 25, 2025, titled “Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse.” It directs the Treasury Department to tighten control over how federal money is paid out and collected, so it can screen payments for fraud and improper payments before they go out and track transactions flowing through the U.S. General Fund (the government’s central account).
Treasury must set up “pre-certification” checks that payments pass before disbursement — verifying, for example, that funds are available, the payee’s name and taxpayer ID are correct, the bank account is valid and belongs to the payee, and that the payee is not deceased. Agencies must send payment files to Treasury with enough lead time for screening, share the data Treasury needs (adding a Privacy Act “routine use” for fraud-related disclosure within 90 days), and submit a compliance plan to the Office of Management and Budget within 90 days; Treasury reports its progress to the President within 180 days. It also consolidates financial systems (OMB guidance within 180 days) and pulls disbursing authority back to Treasury — within 30 days Treasury assesses revoking payment authority it delegated to other agencies, and agencies like Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice are to hand their disbursing (except classified payments) to Treasury’s Chief Disbursing Officer. The order cites figures including $33.6 trillion flowing out of the General Fund in FY2024 and a Government Accountability Office estimate of $233–$521 billion lost annually to fraud.
Federal executive agencies and their certifying officers are most directly affected, since they must change how they submit and verify payments and give up or scale back their own payment operations — this includes “Non-Treasury Disbursing Offices” that handled about 181 million payments worth over $1.5 trillion (roughly 22% of federal dollars) in FY2024. Treasury and OMB take on expanded oversight and system-consolidation duties. The order states it applies to Executive Branch entities (not the Supreme Court or other non-Executive bodies), and it creates no legal rights enforceable by individuals or other parties.