This report discusses the need for legislation providing U.S. attorneys with a statutory basis for prosecuting forgery of payee signatures on U.S. Treasury checks. Forgery is not presently a misdemeanor; often the U.S. attorney concludes that the offense is not grievous enough to warrant prosecution as a felony. The Treasury encounters problems collecting lost funds from the forger. The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) found that most check forgery cases involved a single suspect with no prior record. A misdemeanor forgery statue would eliminate the need to prosecute under less precise nonforgery misdemeanor laws. It would also allow plea flexibility, reduce the number of felony trials, create more accurate conviction records, and provide a more realistic penalty structure than now exists. The Secret Service can do more to encourage prosecution at the local level. The Secret Service now refers only a few cases to local prosecutors although U.S. attorneys often decline to prosecute. Appendixes include a legislative prosposal, a case review, a list of investigative reports, summaries of field offices, and letter on the topic. Chapter footnotes are included.