§ 1704.2 - Definitions.

The following definitions apply to the terms used in this part 1704, unless the term is defined elsewhere in this part 1704.

(a) Administrative offset means an action, pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 3716, in which the Federal Government withholds funds payable to, or held by the Federal Government for a person, organization, or other entity in order to collect a debt from that person, organization, or other entity. Such funds include funds payable by the Federal Government on behalf of a State Government.

(b) Agency means a department, agency, court, court administrative office, or instrumentality in the executive, judicial, or legislative branch of the Federal Government, including government corporations.

(c) Claim or debt (used interchangeably in this part 1704) means any amount of funds or property that has been determined by an agency official to be due the Federal Government by a person, organization, or entity, except another agency. It also means any amount of money, funds, or property owed by a person to a State, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. A claim or debt includes:

(1) Funds owed on account of loans made, insured, or guaranteed by the Federal Government, including any deficiency or any difference between the price obtained by the Federal Government in the sale of a property and the amount owed to the Federal Government on a mortgage on the property;

(2) Expenditures of non-appropriated funds;

(3) Overpayments, including payments disallowed by audits performed by the Inspector General of the agency administering the program;

(4) Any amount the Federal Government is authorized by statute to collect for the benefit of any person;

(5) The unpaid share of any non-Federal partner in a program involving a Federal payment, and a matching or cost-sharing payment by the non-Federal partner;

(6) Any fines or penalties assessed by an agency; and

(7) Other amounts of money or property owed to the Federal Government.

(d) Certification means a written statement received by a paying agency from a creditor agency that request the paying agency to offset the salary of an employee and specifies that required procedural protections have been afforded the employee.

(e) Compromise means the settlement or forgiveness of a debt.

(f) Creditor agency means the agency to which the debt is owed, including a debt collection center when acting in behalf of a creditor agency in matters pertaining to the collection of a debt.

(g) Debt. See Claim or debt in paragraph (c) of this section.

(h) Debt collection center means the Department of the Treasury or any other agency or division designated by the Secretary of the Treasury with authority to collect debts on behalf of creditor agencies in accordance with 31 U.S.C. 3711(g).

(i) Debtor means the person, organization, or entity owing money to the Federal Government.

(j) Disposable pay means that part of current basic pay, special pay, incentive pay, retired pay, or retainer pay (or in the case of an employee not entitled to basic pay, other authorized pay) remaining after the deduction of any amount required by law to be withheld (other than deductions to execute garnishment orders in accordance with 5 CFR parts 581 and 582). Among the legally required deductions that OFHEO must apply first to determine disposable pay are levies pursuant to the Internal Revenue Code (title 26, United States Code) and deductions described in 5 CFR 581.105 (b) through (f), as follows:

(1) Federal employment taxes;

(2) Amounts withheld for the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home;

(3) Amounts deducted for Medicare;

(4) Fines and forfeiture ordered by a court-martial or by a commanding officer;

(5) Federal, State, or local income taxes to the extent authorized or required by law, but no greater than would be the case if the employee claimed all dependents to which her or she is entitled and such additional amounts for which the employee presents evidence of a tax obligation supporting the additional withholding;

(6) Health insurance premiums;

(7) Normal retirement contributions, including employee contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan; and

(8) Normal life insurance premiums, e.g., Serviceman's Group Life Insurance and “Basic Life” Federal Employee's Group Life Insurance premiums, not including amounts deducted for supplementary coverage.

(k) Employee means a current employee of OFHEO or other agency, including a current member of the Armed Forces or a Reserve of the Armed Forces of the United States.

(l) FCCS means the Federal Claims Collection Standards at 4 CFR chapter II.

(m) Hearing official means an individual who is responsible for conducting any hearing with respect to the existence or amount of a debt claimed and for rendering a decision on the basis of such hearing. A hearing official may not be under the supervision or control of the Director of OFHEO when OFHEO is the creditor agency but may be an administrative law judge.

(n) Notice of Intent means a written notice of a creditor agency to a debtor that states that the debtor owes a debt to the creditor agency and apprises the debtor of the applicable procedural rights.

(o) Notice of salary offset means a written notice from the paying agency to an employee after a certification has been issued by a creditor agency that informs the employee that salary offset will begin at the next officially established pay interval.

(p) Paying agency means an agency of the Federal Government that employs the individual who owes a debt to an agency of the Federal Government.

(q) Salary offset means an administrative offset to collect a debt under 5 U.S.C. 5514 by deductions at one or more officially established pay intervals from the current pay account of an employee without his or her consent.

(r) Waiver means the cancellation, remission, forgiveness, or non-recovery of a debt allegedly owed by an employee to OFHEO or another agency as permitted or required by 5 U.S.C. 5584 or 8346(b), 10 U.S.C. 2774, 32 U.S.C. 716, or any other law.