Feds Spending Hundreds of Thousands Maintaining Empty Bank Accounts

Those service fees add up

If you are a federal worker on furlough this week — or an airline passenger delayed by federal furloughs — you might save your blood pressure, and go read another story.

This one is about all the money the U.S. government spends on .?.?. nothing.

It is one of the oddest spending habits in Washington: This year, the government will spend at least $890,000 on service fees for bank accounts that have nothing in them. At last count, Uncle Sam has 13,712 such accounts, each with a balance of zero.