Federal Barring Act (31 U.S.C. § 3702): Deadlines and Exceptions

The Federal Barring Act’s six-year deadline, set out at 31 U.S.C. § 3702, gives you six years from the date a claim accrues to ask the federal government to pay money it owes you.¹ Miss that window and the claim is dead, however legitimate the underlying debt. The rule reaches a broad range of monetary disputes with the government, including unpaid civilian wages, travel and relocation reimbursements, military pay and allowances, retired pay, and survivor benefits.

When the Six-Year Clock Starts

Accrual is the moment you have a legal right to payment. For a payroll error, that is the pay period in which you were shorted. For a travel expense, it is the date you incurred the cost. If the same payroll mistake repeats across multiple pay periods, each period triggers its own accrual date, so some portions of a long-running underpayment may still be recoverable even when the earliest ones are already time-barred.

The statute measures the deadline by when the claim is received by the settlement official or the agency where the claim originated, not by when you mail it.¹ A postmark inside the six years does not save a claim delivered outside them. The clock also keeps running while an agency looks into the problem informally. Waiting for a payroll office to finish an internal review before you file a formal claim is one of the most common ways otherwise valid claims are lost.

The Shorter One-Year Rule for Treasury Checks

Claims involving a Treasury check carry a much shorter deadline: one year from the date the check was issued.¹ If a government check was canceled, lost, or never cashed, contact the issuing agency within that year.

Barring the check claim does not erase the government’s underlying obligation. The statute preserves the original debt, so you may still be able to pursue it through other channels; you simply lose the streamlined Treasury check process.²

Where to Send the Claim

Section 3702 splits settlement authority among four officials depending on the type of claim, and sending it to the wrong one does not stop the clock. An internal referral can eat up months you may not have.¹

Uniformed service members’ pay, allowances, travel, unused accrued leave, retired pay, and survivor benefits, plus carrier claims for property lost or damaged during government-funded shipping, go to the Secretary of Defense.
Federal civilian compensation and leave disputes go to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management.
Federal civilian official travel, transportation, and relocation expenses go to the Administrator of General Services.
Anything not assigned to the other three falls to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Because receipt controls, delivery method matters. Certified mail with return receipt is the safest option for paper submissions. Some offices accept electronic filing; when you use it, confirm the submission actually registered.

Civilian compensation and leave claims can be emailed to OPM at PayandLeaveClaims@opm.gov, but a signed, dated hard copy must also be sent to the Classification and Pay Claims Program Manager, Room 6484, Merit System Audit and Compliance, Office of Personnel Management, 1900 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20415.³ Military pay, debt, and record-correction claims go to DFAS-IN/Debt and Claims, Dept. 3300 ATTN: Claims and Correction of Records, 8899 East 56th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46249-3300.⁴ For travel and relocation, the specific address varies by expense category; check with your agency’s travel office or GSA before sending.

Whatever you send, the statute requires the claimant’s signature and address, or those of an authorized representative, on the claim itself.¹

The Narrow Exceptions

Wartime Extension for Service Members

If a service member’s claim accrues during a war, or within the five years before a war begins, the claim can instead be filed within five years after peace is established, whichever gives the claimant more time.¹ It is an alternative deadline, not a pause, and only helps when it produces a later expiration than the standard rule.

Secretary of Defense Waiver

The Secretary of Defense can waive both the six-year and the one-year deadlines for claims involving service members’ pay, allowances, travel, retired pay, and survivor benefits, but not for claims exceeding $25,000.¹ The Comptroller General also has limited waiver authority over claims involving military pay and allowances under Title 37, though not over retired pay claims under Title 10.⁵

States and Territories

The six-year deadline does not apply to claims filed by a state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory or possession.¹ The carve-out is for government-to-government disputes and does nothing for individual claimants.

No Tolling for Disability or Hardship

The Federal Barring Act contains no general tolling provision. Mental incapacity, hospitalization, or ignorance that the government owed you money does not pause or extend the six years. The general federal statute of limitations for civil lawsuits gives people with legal disabilities an extra three years after the disability ends,⁶ but § 3702 has no equivalent. Outside the wartime rule, the Secretary of Defense’s waiver, and any separate federal law that independently applies to a specific claim type, the deadline is absolute.

If You Miss the Deadline or the Claim Is Denied

An agency that denies a claim must give its reasons in writing, and you can ask for reconsideration by supplying additional evidence or correcting factual misunderstandings. Beyond the administrative track, the Court of Federal Claims hears monetary claims against the United States under the Tucker Act, with its own six-year statute of limitations running from accrual.⁷

The administrative process under § 3702 and the judicial process under the Tucker Act run on parallel clocks with similar but not identical rules. One meaningful difference: the general civil statute of limitations for suits against the government allows extra time for legal disability,⁶ while § 3702 does not. Missing one deadline does not automatically foreclose the other, so if the administrative claim is time-barred or denied and the amount is substantial, it is worth asking an attorney whether a Court of Federal Claims action is still available.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 3702 – Authority to Settle Claims
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 US Code 3702 – Authority to Settle Claims
3
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Compensation and Leave
4
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Contact Us – Debt and Claims
5
U.S. Government Accountability Office. Comments on Waiver of Time Limitations for Filing Claims (B-275828.2)
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Filing Suit
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2501 – Time for Filing Suit