“We commend Attorney General Sessions for directing Department of Justice officials to seek justice in a manner consistent with the public interest, not how much money they can generate for outside interest groups unconnected with the underlying enforcement action,” said chamber President Lisa Rickard in a blog post.

Just last month, a federal appellate judge decried the use of a provision in a class action discrimination settlement with the government to donate leftover funds to outside groups that help Native American farmers. Those types of agreements, referred to as “cy pres” provisions, are prohibited by Sessions’ memo. The funds in that case, totaling more than $200 million, should be returned to the Treasury, D.C. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote in a dissenting opinion.

The new policy does not apply to payments for legal or other professional services or payments that provide restitution as expressly authorized by a certain law. It also makes an exception for payments to directly remedy “the harm that is sought to be redressed,” such as “harm to the environment or from official corruption,” the memo said.

Under Obama, DOJ used the practice several times in settlements with banks following the 2008 financial crisis. That included a $16.65 billion settlement with Bank of America in 2014, in which the bank was required to donate millions to housing nonprofits and other community development organizations.

The practice was also employed recently in DOJ’s civil settlement with Volkswagen over its emissions cheating scandal. That agreement required VW to direct $2 billion “toward improving infrastructure, access and education to support and advance zero emission vehicles.” The company was sentenced for criminal violations in April.