Source: United States Senator for Kansas – Jerry Moran
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) joined John Kennedy (R-La.) to introduce the Unclaimed Savings Bond Act. This legislation would help Americans claim more than $26 billion in unredeemed savings bonds, including $209 million that belong to Kansans.
“Americans are owed billions of dollars by the federal government for unclaimed, matured savings bonds,” said Sen. Moran. “This sensible legislation requires the U.S. Treasury to provide states, including Kansas, with the necessary records to locate the rightful owners and heirs of these matured bonds.”
The U.S. Treasury Department is currently holding more than $26 billion in matured, unredeemed U.S. savings bonds, most of which the Treasury deems lost, stolen, destroyed or “unclaimed.” Many of these bonds were issued more than 70 years ago and have matured—meaning they no longer earn interest for bondholders. In cases in which bonds are not physically possessed by their rightful holders, only the Treasury has the names and addresses of the original bond owners. The Treasury also has the serial numbers needed to claim the bond proceeds.
The Treasury has not taken any significant actions to proactively reunite bonds with their rightful owners despite its relaunch of Treasury Hunt, an online search tool that allows bond owners to locate bond information. Individual states, however, conduct programs that reconnect their citizens with unclaimed property.
The Unclaimed Savings Bonds Act would require the Treasury to provide states information about matured and unclaimed bonds so these states can use unclaimed property programs to help find the original owners, or heirs of those original owners, of these bonds. This provision would only apply to unredeemed bonds that matured before 2018.
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and James Risch (R-Idaho) cosponsored the legislation.
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