Treasury printed 40.9 million paper checks in fiscal year 2025, the department itself says, even though almost every federal payment now moves electronically. A proposed rule published on April 29, 2026 would finish the job of retiring them, but it remains a proposal. The comment period closed on June 15, 2026, and no final rule has appeared.
The 40.9 million figure in Treasury’s proposed rule
The number comes from Treasury’s own notice. In the proposed rule on the management of federal agency disbursements, the department writes that “in fiscal year 2025, Treasury still printed 40.9 million checks.” The word “still” matters, because the same document says 97% of the more than 1.3 billion payments Treasury disburses each year on behalf of federal agencies are already made electronically.
The fiscal year is the federal one. Fiscal 2025 ran from October 2024 through September 2025, so the figure describes a year that has already closed, not a running count for the current year. The proposal appeared in docket FISCAL-2026-0001 and amends 31 CFR Part 208, the Treasury regulation that governs how federal payments are made.
Executive Order 14247 and the $3.07 cost of printing a check
The proposal says it implements Executive Order 14247, titled “Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account.” Treasury’s stated reasoning is cost. According to the notice, the price to print checks “has climbed to an average of $3.07 per check,” which it describes as 20 times more expensive than Automated Clearing House payments, the electronic network behind most direct deposits.
The notice carries the signature of Gary Grippo, Acting Fiscal Assistant Secretary. Treasury lists Lisa Andre, a senior advisor in the Office of the Associate Commissioner for Business Operations at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, as the agency contact for questions about the rulemaking, at 215-516-8142.
Why a proposal does not change anything yet
A proposed rule is a draft. It asks the public to comment, and it binds no one until Treasury publishes a final rule with an effective date. The April notice states no effective date. The comment window ran from the April 29 publication to June 15, 2026, and that deadline has passed. A web search run on October 3, 2026 turned up the proposal and comment letters about it, but no final rule.
That distinction decides how the 40.9 million figure should be read. It measures how much paper Treasury was still issuing in fiscal 2025 and gives the case for ending it. It does not show that checks have been abolished, and it does not set a date on which they will be.
The rule already in force: 31 CFR Part 208
The electronic-payment requirement predates the proposal. Treasury’s electronic funds transfer page, last updated March 10, 2026, identifies the governing authority as 31 U.S.C. 3332 together with the 31 CFR Part 208 rule that took effect on March 22, 2024. Those provisions are the law today. The April 2026 proposal would amend them further, but until a final rule is published, the March 2024 version remains the operative text.
The gap between 97% electronic and 100% electronic therefore reflects exceptions and a transition, not a missing legal requirement. The 40.9 million checks issued in fiscal 2025 went out under a regime that already told recipients to move to electronic payment.
What the Social Security Administration tells check recipients
The agency that most visibly applies this requirement to individuals is the Social Security Administration. Its direct deposit page states: “If you currently receive Social Security benefits or SSI by check, you must switch to an electronic payment option listed above.” The same page carries a waiver line, 1-855-290-1545, for people who believe they cannot use an electronic option.
The instruction is SSA’s own and does not depend on the proposed rule. It is stated as a present obligation, which is why the proposal’s unfinished status does not make the switch optional for a benefit recipient who is paid by check. The proposal’s pending status concerns how Treasury would structure and enforce the end of paper disbursements across all federal agencies, not whether SSA currently expects electronic payment.
What a final rule would still have to supply
Several questions are left open by the published record. The notice names no effective date, so there is no date by which the remaining paper payments would end. No response to the comments received through June 15 appears in the record reviewed. Whether the final text would change the waiver standard, or add a date for agencies to stop requesting checks, will be known only when a final rule appears in the Federal Register.
For now the verifiable facts are narrow and all come from Treasury: 40.9 million checks printed in fiscal 2025, an average printing cost of $3.07 each, 97% of more than 1.3 billion annual payments already electronic, and a proposal in docket FISCAL-2026-0001 whose comment period closed on June 15, 2026.
Social Security payments when the paper check goes away
Beneficiaries who still receive a paper check, and families who help them, face the task of moving to an electronic payment without a gap in income.
The Treasury proposal to end paper disbursements leaves that switch unfinished for many check recipients, because the notice sets no date and the waiver standard is described only in general terms.
The Social Security Check Protection Kit pairs the 2026 payment calendar with a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment, so a change of payment method can be tracked against the dates that matter.
Open the 2026 payment calendar and a late-payment plan for the switch away from paper checks →
This article was written with AI assistance and verified line by line against the primary records linked in it.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
