Payment of Storage Fees--United States Marshals Service

This discussion is in response to a request from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) for GAO to render a legal opinion on whether the responsibility for paying storage costs when goods are seized and held by the United States rests with the Marshals Service which executes the seizure warrant, or the federal agency--such as USDA or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)--under whose substantive statutory authority the goods are seized initially. GAO held that after the Marshalls Service takes custody of property seized by the United States pursuant to the execution of a warrant, it becomes the obligation of the Marshalls Service rather than the other agency involved to pay any storage costs that are the responsibility of the United States Government.