Treasury proposes changes to agency disbursements reg

Treasury's Fiscal Service Bureau has published [84 FR 55267] in this morning's Federal Register a notice and request for comments on proposed amendments to its regulation that requires electronic delivery of all Federal payments aside from tax payments. The proposed rule would eliminate obsolete references in the regulation, including references to the Electronic Transfer Account (program ended in 2017). In addition, the proposed rule would provide for the disbursement of non-benefit payments, including tax payments, through Treasury-sponsored accounts, such as the U.S. Debit Card. The proposed rule would not mandate the electronic delivery of tax payments or affect the Direct Express program, which will continue to be available to recipients of benefit payments.

The proposal would reflect the evolution of the Fiscal Service's payment technologies and eliminate outdated references and EFT waiver categories. Payments made by the IRS would be added to the definition of "federal payment" to support the delivery of tax refunds via Treasury-sponsored accounts, but tax refund payments would continue to be excluded from the EFT mandate that applies to other federal payments.

Comments on the proposal are due by December 16, 2019.