PRIA Logo™
Title 31, Money and FinanceRelease 119-102

§3720 Collection of Payments

Title 31 › SUBTITLE III — FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT › CHAPTER 37 — CLAIMS › SUBCHAPTER II — CLAIMS OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT › § 3720

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Agency heads must set up systems to collect and quickly deposit money owed to their agency, following rules the Secretary of the Treasury makes and the rules in section 3302. This does not apply to agencies covered by section 9 of the Act of May 18, 1933 (16 U.S.C. 831h). The collection methods must include things like electronic transfers, automatic bank withdrawals, and bank-handled post office lockbox deposits. If an agency does not follow the rules, the Treasury Secretary can charge the agency an amount equal to the cost its noncompliance causes the general fund. Agency heads must pay those charges from the money appropriated or otherwise available for the program that generated the collections. The charges go into a revolving account in the Treasury called the Cash Management Improvements Fund. That fund can be used without fiscal year limits to pay for developing and running the collection methods, including staff, equipment, leases, and facilities.

Full Legal Text

Title 31, §3720

Money and Finance, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Each head of an executive agency (other than an agency subject to section 9 of the Act of May 18, 1933 (48 Stat. 63, chapter 32; 16 U.S.C. 831h)) shall, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe, provide for the timely deposit of money by officials and agents of such agency in accordance with section 3302, and for the collection and timely deposit of sums owed to such agency by the use of such procedures as withdrawals and deposits by electronic transfer of funds, automatic withdrawals from accounts at financial institutions, and a system under which financial institutions receive and deposit, on behalf of the executive agency, payments transmitted to post office lockboxes. The Secretary is authorized to collect from any agency not complying with the requirements imposed pursuant to the preceding sentence a charge in an amount the Secretary determines to be the cost to the general fund caused by such noncompliance.
(b)The head of an executive agency shall pay to the Secretary of the Treasury charges imposed pursuant to subsection (a). Payments shall be made out of amounts appropriated or otherwise made available to carry out the program to which the collections relate. The amounts of the charges paid under this subsection shall be deposited in the Cash Management Improvements Fund established by subsection (c).
(c)There is established in the Treasury of the United States a revolving fund to be known as the “Cash Management Improvements Fund”. Sums in the fund shall be available without fiscal year limitation for the payment of expenses incurred in developing the methods of collection and deposit described in subsection (a) of this section and the expenses incurred in carrying out collections and deposits using such methods, including the costs of personal services and the costs of the lease or purchase of equipment and operating facilities.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Regulations

Pub. L. 98–369, div. B, title VI, § 2652(a)(3), July 18, 1984, 98 Stat. 1152, provided that: “The Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe

Regulations

, including

Regulations

under section 3720 of title 31, United States Code, designed to achieve by October 1, 1986, full implementation of the purposes of this subsection.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

31 U.S.C. § 3720

Title 31, Money and Finance

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102