5.20—How do other Federal agencies use the offset process to collect debts from payments issued by a Treasury entity?
(a)
Offset of Treasury entity payments to collect debts owed to other
Federal agencies. (1) In most cases, Federal agencies submit eligible debts to
the Treasury Offset Program to collect delinquent debts from payments issued by
Treasury entities and other Federal agencies, a process known as “centralized
offset.” When centralized offset is not available or appropriate, any Federal agency
may ask a Treasury entity (when acting as a “payment agency”) to collect a debt owed
to such agency by offsetting funds payable to a debtor by the Treasury entity,
including salary payments issued to Treasury entity employees. This section and §
5.21 of this subpart C apply when a Federal agency asks a Treasury entity to offset
a payment issued by the Treasury entity to a person who owes a debt to the United
States.
(2)
This subpart C does not apply to Treasury debts. See §§ 5.10
through 5.12 of this part for offset procedures applicable to Treasury debts.
(3)
This subpart C does not apply to the collection of non-Treasury debts through
tax refund offset. See 31 CFR 285.2 for tax refund offset
procedures.
(b) Administrative offset (including salary offset); certification.
A
Treasury entity will initiate a requested offset only upon receipt of written
certification from the creditor agency that the debtor owes the past-due, legally
enforceable debt in the amount stated, and that the creditor agency has fully
complied with all applicable due process and other requirements contained in 31
U.S.C. 3716, 5 U.S.C. 5514, and the creditor agency's regulations, as applicable.
Offsets will continue until the debt is paid in full or otherwise resolved to the
satisfaction of the creditor agency.
(c) Where a creditor agency makes requests for offset.
Requests for
offset under this section shall be sent to the U.S. Department of the Treasury,
ATTN: Deputy Chief Financial Officer, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Attention:
Metropolitan Square, Room 6228, Washington, DC 20220. The Deputy Chief Financial
Officer will forward the request to the appropriate Treasury entity for processing
in accordance with this subpart C.
(d) Incomplete certification.
A Treasury entity will return an
incomplete debt certification to the creditor agency with notice that the creditor
agency must comply with paragraph (b) of this section before action will be taken to
collect a debt from a payment issued by a Treasury entity.
(e) Review.
A Treasury entity is not authorized to review the merits
of the creditor agency's determination with respect to the amount or validity of the
debt certified by the creditor agency.
(f) When Treasury entities will not comply with offset request.
A
Treasury entity will comply with the offset request of another agency unless the
Treasury entity determines that the offset would not be in the best interests of the
United States, or would otherwise be contrary to law.
(g) Multiple debts.
When two or more creditor agencies are seeking
offsets from payments made to the same person, or when two or more debts are owed to
a single creditor agency, the Treasury entity that has been asked to offset the
payments may determine the order in which the debts will be collected or whether one
or more debts should be collected by offset simultaneously.
(h) Priority of debts owed to Treasury entity.
For purposes of this
section, debts owed to a Treasury entity generally take precedence over debts owed
to other agencies. The Treasury entity that has been asked to offset the payments
may determine whether to pay debts owed to other agencies before paying a debt owed
to a Treasury entity. The Treasury entity that has been asked to offset the payments
will determine the order in which the debts will be collected based on the best
interests of the United States.