EO 14249 Mandated Electronic Payments

On March 25, 2025, the President of the United States signed Executive Order #14249 titled Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse, which was published in the Federal Register on March 28.

The fact sheet states that, effective September 30, 2025, the Federal government will cease issuing paper checks for all disbursements, including intragovernmental payments, benefits, vendor payments, and tax refunds.

The fact sheet also states payments made to the Federal government, such as fees, fines, loans, and taxes, must also be processed electronically where permissible under existing law.

You can read the full Executive Order as it appears in the Federal Register here and the White House Fact Sheet which summarizes the Executive Order here.

If you are still writing paper checks to pay your estimated tax payments or the balance due then you may want to switch over to electronic payments sooner rather than later to avoid the learning curve.

I was stationed in Germany in 1973 and the first half of ’74 in a maintenance company for the Army’s Third Armored Division. When my company XO was promoted to CO, I was his personal clerk and driver for a while. The standard process to pay enlisted troops on our base was that once a month the XO, his driver and a appropriate armed detail would go to a nearby Kaserne where we received and counted the cash to pay everyone who did not have direct deposit which I would guess to be 90%+ of the enlisted men in our company of about 200 men (we had no women assigned to our company).

When we returned to our base we then divided the cash into the amount each man would receive. At that point usually mid-morning the company would fall into formation. After announcements those with direct deposit would be dismissed to go to their assigned duty post and then the XO and his clerk would pay those without direct deposit, man by man. I would count the money out and then the payee would also count the money and then sign their paper check to acknowledge payment in full as the XO supervised. The XO and I hated payday. When the XO was promoted he did something about this procedure.

On the first payday after his promotion to CO we had our normal formation but then things changed. No one was dismissed and the entire company walked (marching would not describe this) to the Kaserne at Erlensee from the  Fliegerhorst Kaserne at Hanua a distance of about 7Km a little over 4 miles. We paid the men without direct deposit at Erlensee, and then the entire company walked back to Fliegerhorst. When we arrived back near the end of the day, we had another formation and my CO announced that he hoped everyone had enjoyed the day and noted that we would be following the same process every month until at least 90% of the company had elected direct deposit.

We did not have to make the walk again as most everyone had elected to have direct deposit by the next payday.  My CO had found the right incentive. Yes, the CO and I also walked.

So, what motivates you best, the carrot or the stick?