Congress creates the Treasury Judgment Fund, a permanent appropriation to pay court awards against the US

Congress enacted 31 U.S.C. § 1304 in 1956, establishing the Judgment Fund as a permanent, indefinite appropriation administered by the Treasury Department Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The fund pays final court judgments, arbitration awards, and compromise settlements reached by the Department of Justice on behalf of federal agencies — without requiring separate congressional appropriations for individual payouts. Congress created the fund following a General Accounting Office recommendation to prevent delayed payments and rising interest charges on awards already won against the government.