Why the Federal Government Still Mails Paper Checks

The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending · Jul 16, 2026 · 8m · transcript

The federal government issued over 140 million paper checks last year, costing taxpayers more than a billion dollars in processing, printing, and postage. Lucas and Luna unpack why a system that could be fully electronic still relies on physical checks—exploring the regulatory inertia, the banking infrastructure that profits from float, and the surprising constituency that prefers paper. They trace the history from the Treasury's 1970s-era check-processing centers to today's patchwork of electronic payment options, and ask whether the government could ever mandate digital-only…