Thirty state financial officers are urging President Trump to order the Treasury Department to release $39 billion in unclaimed war and savings bonds to Americans amid celebrations for the nation’s 250th anniversary, The Post has learned.
The state treasurers argued in a Thursday letter to Trump that the original owners of the bonds had died without telling heirs, lost records or simply forgot – but that their matured savings deserve to be reunited with their families, not held by the government.
“Americans purchased war bonds not merely as investments, but as acts of patriotism and confidence in the nation’s future,” officials from Alabama, Idaho, Missouri, North Carolina and 26 other states wrote, nodding to savings stamps purchased by children, neighborhood bond drives and payroll savings plans.
The financial officers noted that Trump attempted to expedite the release of matured bonds during his first term with an executive order in 2020, but argued that the Biden administration’s Secure 2.0 Act in 2022 created “a frustrating catch-22” for state treasurers.
That legislation required states to prove they owned the abandoned bonds before Treasury would release info about bond owners – but it was an impossible task, since state officials needed the government data to prove ownership, according to the letter.
“America’s 250th anniversary presents a unique opportunity to honor one of the most enduring expressions of civic faith in our nation’s history: the decision by millions of Americans to invest in their country through the purchase of savings bonds and, during World War II, war bonds,” the treasurers added,
More than 6.8 million paper savings bonds worth over $731 billion have been issued since the Savings Bond program’s inception in 1935, when it was signed into law by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to the Treasury Department.
While most of the funds have been claimed, millions have gone unredeemed after owners lost associated records, moved homes or simply forgot about the wartime investments they made decades earlier – creating one of the largest pools of dormant assets in the country, the letter said.
“When Americans were asked to step up and contribute to the fight for freedom, the individuals and families who purchased US savings bonds did not hesitate,” OJ Oleka, chief executive of the State Financial Officers Foundation, told The Post.
Returning the bonds “is the proper way to honor their legacy and the important role these citizens played in allowing our nation to celebrate 250 years of freedom. After all, this is not the government’s money. These were loans, made in patriotic good faith, and it’s time this debt is repaid,” he said.
The treasurers argued that a new executive order from Trump could remove Biden-era regulatory barriers and help resolve what is, at its core, a “property-rights issue” without requiring Congress to pass another law.
The letter did not detail how the funds would be returned if the executive order the officials are seeking comes to pass. But they said it would be the last step after years of progress toward the release of unredeemed bonds, as the Treasury Department has modernized its records and owner-search tools and improved outreach, and Congress has allocated funding to digitize debt records.