The U.S. Department of Education published a notice in the Federal Register on August 25, 2026, establishing a computer matching program with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The program is authorized under the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended by the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988 and the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Amendments of 1990, and follows guidance from the Office of Management and Budget.
The matching agreement allows the Fiscal Service to provide services related to identifying, preventing, and recovering improper payments through the Do Not Pay program, operating under 31 U.S.C. 3554. The notice states the action is a new matching program, rather than a renewal or revision of an existing one.
Public comment period open
Members of the public may submit comments on the matching program until September 24, 2026. The notice does not specify the volume of data to be matched or the exact categories of records that will be compared, nor does it estimate the dollar amount of improper payments the program might recover.