Fiscal Service June 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of the Treasury, Financial Management Service, is amending its regulation governing the centralized offset of federal payments to collect nontax debts owed to the United States. The amendment removes the time limitation on the collection of nontax debts by centralized offset, consistent with a change in the statute on which it is based. The statutory change, enacted as part of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, allows for the use of centralized offset of federal payments, including federal salary payments, to collect nontax debts owed to the United States irrespective of the amount of time the debt has been outstanding.

The Department of the Treasury, Financial Management Service, is amending its regulations governing the offset of Federal payments to collect nontax debts owed to the United States and States through the Treasury Offset Program. This amendment changes the priorities for collecting debt when a debtor owes more than one debt which has been referred to the Treasury Offset Program for collection by offset, consistent with a change in the statute on which the priority is based. The statutory change, enacted as part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, amends the priority given to the collection of certain past-due support debts.

The Department of the Treasury (``Treasury'' or ``We'') is issuing in final form amendments to the Uniform Offering Circular for the Sale and Issue of Marketable Book-Entry Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds. This final rule makes conforming changes to several sections of the Uniform Offering Circular to be consistent with Treasury's current auction practices. The first change modifies the description of Treasury bills to clarify that they may be issued at a discount or at par, depending upon the auction results. The second change clarifies that the rate or yield bid in Treasury bill or Treasury fixed-principal securities auctions must be a positive number or zero. The third change eliminates a provision related to ``guaranteed bid'' arrangements that was intended for multiple-price auctions. Because Treasury no longer conducts multiple-price auctions, the provision is no longer needed or effective. The fourth change updates an example of the proration of auction awards at the highest accepted yield or discount rate to reflect the change in minimum and multiple bid amounts to $100 for all Treasury marketable securities auctions that became effective in 2008. The fifth change modifies the provision for the notification of auction awards and settlement amounts to provide language consistent with related provisions of the Uniform Offering Circular. Finally, we are updating several references to the Bureau of the Public Debt's Web site to reflect the current URL.