Will GAO Examine Savings Bond Policy?

We've long been in favor of expanding access to savings bonds. They're well-known, secure and historically have been available to everyone. Unfortunately, that's not really the case anymore. The Treasury Department eliminated retail sales of paper bonds a few years back and also ended a payroll purchase program. Treasury seems to have preferred to try to skip a generation by moving all sales online, through their TreasuryDirect portal. Unfortunately, this creates all manner of issues for Americans.

If you aren't digitally connected and savvy, you're out of luck.
If you don't have a bank account, no savings bond purchases for you.
Want to buy a savings bond for your granddaughter? Tough luck.

It hasn't been all bad, the Treasury Department instituted the Savings Bond Purchase Option, allowing individuals to use the tax form and their tax return to purchase giftable savings bonds and making a significant step forward for accessing bonds.

Along with other members of the Savings Bond Working Group (lead by D2D) we've urged Treasury to continue that program. However, where once any American could easily save by purchasing a paper savings bond, there's now a gap in the savings infrastructure that hasn't been filled for years and we don't really know why.

Now Representative Matt Cartwright (D-PA) (who has been very active in this space) is leading a group that wants some answers to these questions and sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stating:

“We are writing to request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) undertake a review of the policies and practices of the Treasury Department concerning the savings bond program, as well as a study of other potential asset building strategies for low and moderate income individuals.”

The letter gets into specifics, asking good and hard questions about how much Treasury has saved by shuttering retail sales and the costs of maintaining the printing press to support the tax time purchase option. I was asked to provide a quote for the press release Rep. Cartwright's office released, and I said:

“The government should clearly promote savings and financial inclusion. Excluding Americans from saving and participating in the financial mainstream damages the financial stability of our families and our nation’s economic future. Unfortunately, the recent track record on savings bonds is two-steps backward and one-step forward. We need better vision and execution to keep promoting savings and stability for American families.”

The bottom line is that we don't have a clear picture from Treasury about what their plans are for savings bonds, and whether or not they think that providing access to safe, simple savings products is part of their mission (even though there's decades of history there). Here's hoping GAO takes up this request, and that it helps shed some light and moves the government's position to one that is unequivocally pro-savings and financial inclusion.