Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) addressed the U.S. Senate regarding efforts to return unclaimed savings bond funds to Americans. Kennedy discussed the issue of mature, unredeemed savings bonds that remain with the federal government and outlined steps for state treasurers to help citizens reclaim these funds.
During his speech, Kennedy stated, “Mr. President, I’ve learned a few things in life. I want to mention two: number one, money does not buy happiness; number two, poverty does not buy a damn thing. And that’s the theme of my few minutes as I talk today. This is about people’s money, and it has to do with unredeemed, uncashed savings bonds.”
He noted that the U.S. Department of Treasury holds approximately 100 million unredeemed savings bonds worth $36.27 billion. According to Kennedy, this money belongs to the American people but is no longer earning interest while it remains with the government.
“Here’s what I’m driving at: Right now, over in the United States Department of Treasury, there are 100 million unredeemed savings bonds—money that belongs to the American people—and it’s no longer earning interest . . . [T]he money’s just sitting there, and the federal government’s using it, and they’re not paying people interest,” Kennedy said.
He added, “The total amount of these unredeemed savings bonds: $36.27 billion. And that $36 billion has been there a long, long time, because people have either died or they’ve forgotten that they have these unredeemed savings bonds.”
Kennedy explained his legislative response: “[B]ack in 2023, I introduced a bill which actually passed . . . that said to the federal government, specifically the United States Department of Treasury, ‘You’ve got to give this money back.’ . . . Why are you just sitting on this $36 billion?”
He recounted challenges faced by Treasury officials due to non-digitized records and described his subsequent action: “And they said, ‘Kennedy, you don’t understand. First of all, . . . the records are not digitized . . . and it’s just a lot of trouble.’ And I said, ‘Well, I feel your pain, but you still ought to return the money to people. So here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to introduce a bill’—and I did and I passed it—‘[that provides] money for the U.S. Department of Treasury to digitize those records . . . and put them in a database so they can be easily searched.’ And the U.S. Department of Treasury has done that, and I want to thank them.”
According to Kennedy’s remarks on next steps: “We are ready to turn the names and addresses and serial numbers over to the treasurer of every state—in Louisiana, in West Virginia, in every other state . . . so they can contact people in their state and say, ‘The federal government has your money, and we want to get it back to you.’”
He further stated: “[W]e’re almost home. What now we have to do is get the state treasurers to sign an agreement with the U.S. Department of Treasury to cooperate…so we can start returning this money…”
Kennedy plans additional outreach: “And I’m going to be sending another letter out…to all the state treasurers asking them…to go ahead and sign that user agreement with the Treasury Department so we can start getting this money back…”
“It’s free money…If I can just get our state treasurers to turn in these user agreements…you may not get a check for Christmas but if you hurry up you can get a check in January or February so you can pay some bills,” he concluded.
Kennedy was responsible for authoring legislation known as The Unclaimed Savings Bond Act of 2021 which became law as part of an appropriations package in 2023. The law requires information about original owners of such bonds be shared with states so local authorities can assist residents through their own unclaimed property programs.
In November 2025 he sent letters urging relevant associations representing property administrators and state treasurers across America enter into necessary agreements with Treasury officials for efficient processing.
Previously during his tenure as Louisiana State Treasurer for 17 years Kennedy oversaw efforts resulting in approximately $400 million being returned through Louisiana’s own program.
