Promises Made & Promises Kept

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced U.S. Savings Bonds to give American families a safe way to invest in our country while saving for their children’s future. During World War II, buying a Savings Bond became more than a financial decision – it became an act of patriotism, allowing ordinary Americans to support our troops and help fund the Allied war effort.

More than 80 million Americans answered that call, purchasing over $185 billion in war bonds, according to the Corporate Finance Institute. That investment gave our nation additional capital to win the war while allowing the federal government to borrow at lower interest rates and avoid placing a heavier tax burden on American families.

Today, the U.S. Treasury estimates that roughly $39 billion in matured, unredeemed U.S. Savings Bonds remain outstanding. Those forgotten bonds represent one of the largest pools of dormant financial assets in the country. It’s time to return that money to the people who earned it.

In 2020, President Trump took an important step toward doing exactly that by issuing an Executive Order directing the U.S. Treasury to work with states so experienced unclaimed money programs – like the one we have in Mississippi – could help locate bondholders and reunite them with their property.

Although Congress later reaffirmed the principles behind that Executive Order, the Biden Administration imposed new regulations that undermined its purpose. Despite broad bipartisan support from state financial officers and Members of Congress, states were denied the information needed to return these patriotic investments to their rightful owners.

Earlier this month, I joined dozens of state financial officers in urging President Trump to issue a new Executive Order that restores the original intent of his 2020 action. We asked the Administration to eliminate Biden-era red tape, complete Treasury’s modernization efforts, and expand owner-location and heir-identification programs so states can finally return these unredeemed Savings Bonds to the American people.

Let me be clear: these bonds are not the government’s money. They are your money, and they belong back in your hands.

That belief has guided me since my first day as your State Treasurer. It is why our team has worked tirelessly to modernize Mississippi’s unclaimed money program and return more than $180 million to its rightful owners – more than all previous Mississippi Treasurers combined.

Americans invested in their country because they believed in its future. The least their government can do is honor that investment by returning what belongs to them. Let’s cut the red tape, reunite families with their money, and prove once again that when America makes a promise, America keeps it.