Trust Fund Management Program
The Secretary of the U.S. Treasury is designated by law as the managing trustee for eighteen of the approximately two hundred thirty Federal Investment Funds. With over $2.5 Trillion in assets, the Treasury-managed Investment Funds are the majority of the largest Trust Funds in the Federal Government. They receive Social Security, Medicare, excise and employment taxes---all collected by Treasury---as well as premiums, fines, penalties and other designated monies collected by the agencies that administer the programs for which these Trust Funds exist.
The Bureau of the Public Debt is delegated the responsibility for administering these eighteen Funds. For each of these Funds, Public Debt immediately invests all receipts credited to the Fund, and maintains the invested assets in the Trust Fund account until money is needed by the related Federal Program agency to fund program activity, such as Social Security and unemployment benefit payments, as well as highway funding.
When the program agencies determine that monies are needed, Public Debt redeems securities from the Funds' investment balances, and transfers the cash proceeds, including interest earned on the investments, to the program accounts for disbursement by the agency. The Bureau provides monthly and other periodic reporting to each Fund's program agency.
