Fiscal Service – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This is Supplement No. 12 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2007 Revision, published July 2, 2007, at 72 FR 36192.

This is Supplement No. 8 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2007 Revision, published July 2, 2007, at 72 FR 36192.

The Department of the Treasury is announcing a change in the fee schedule for the Legacy Treasury Direct investor account maintenance fee. Legacy Treasury Direct investor account maintenance fees are assessed annually for each investor account with security holdings in excess of $100,000 in par value, pursuant to the Regulations Governing Book-Entry Treasury Bonds, Notes and Bills Held in Legacy Treasury Direct.

This is Supplement No. 6 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2007 Revision, published July 2, 2007, at 72 FR 36192.

The Financial Management Service, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on a continuing information collection. By this notice, the Financial Management Service solicits comments concerning the form ``Schedule of Excess Risks.''

We are proposing to amend our regulation which governs the use of the Automated Clearing House (ACH) system by Federal agencies. That regulation adopts, with some exceptions, the ACH Rules developed by NACHAThe Electronic Payments Association (NACHA) as the rules governing the use of the ACH Network by Federal agencies. We are issuing this proposed rule to address changes that NACHA has made to the ACH Rules since the publication of NACHA's 2005 ACH Rules book. We are proposing to adopt, with one exception, all of the changes that NACHA has approved since the issuance of the 2005 ACH Rules book, as reflected in the 2007 ACH Rules book. In addition, the proposed rule would provide two exceptions to the deposit account requirement in the regulation. The regulation requires that an ACH credit entry representing a Federal payment other than a vendor payment be deposited into a deposit account at a financial institution in the name of the recipient. On April 21, 2005, Treasury waived this requirement in order to allow some or all of the amount to be reimbursed to a Federal employee for official travel credit card charges to be disbursed directly to the credit card issuing bank. The proposed rule would codify this waiver. The proposed rule would also provide an exception from the requirements in cases where a Federal payment is to be disbursed through a debit card, stored value card, prepaid card or similar payment card program established by the Financial Management Service (Service).

For the period beginning January 1, 2008, and ending on June 30, 2008, the prompt payment interest rate and the contract disputes interest rate is 4-\3/4\ per centum per annum.

This is Supplement No. 3 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2007 Revision, published July 2, 2007, at 72 FR 36192.

The Department of the Treasury is announcing a new fee schedule applicable to transfers of U.S. Treasury book-entry securities maintained on the National Book-Entry System (NBES) that occur on or after January 2, 2008. The basic fee for the transfer of a Treasury book-entry security will increase from $.26 to $.28. The Federal Reserve funds movement fee will remain at $.05, resulting in a combined fee of $.33 for each Treasury securities transfer. In addition to the basic fee, off-line transfers have a surcharge. The surcharge for an off-line Treasury book-entry transfer will remain $33.00.

Pursuant to section 11 of the Debt Collection Act of 1982, as amended, (31 U.S.C. 3717), the Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for computing and publishing the percentage rate to be used in assessing interest charges for outstanding debts owed to the Government. Treasury's Cash Management Requirements (TFM Volume I, Part 6, Chapter 8000) prescribe use of this rate by agencies as a comparison point in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of a cash discount. In addition, 5 CFR 1315.8 of the Prompt Payment rule on ``Rebates'' requires that this rate be used in determining when agencies should pay purchase card invoices when the card issuer offers a rebate. Notice is hereby given that the applicable rate is 5.00 percent for calendar year 2008.

As part of an ongoing effort to review and streamline its regulations, the Financial Management Service (FMS) has revised its regulation governing the Treasury Tax and Loan (TT&L) program. The changes update the rule to reflect the reorganization and enhancement of the TT&L program, including changes in terminology, and simplify the rule by deleting procedures and provisions that appear in other regulations or in the Treasury Financial Manual. FMS also has rewritten this regulation in plain language, thus making it clearer and easier to understand.

On August 7, 2006, the Financial Management Service (FMS) published an interim final rule amending 31 CFR Part 208 (Part 208) to facilitate the delivery of Federal payments to victims of disasters and emergencies. See 71 FR 44584. The interim final rule was published without prior notice and comment and took effect immediately upon publication due to the need to be prepared to deliver Federal assistance and benefit payments during the 2006 hurricane season. However, we invited comments on the interim rule and indicated that we would consider all comments received. We have reviewed and considered the comments received on the interim rule and are adopting that rule as final without change.

This is Supplement No. 17 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2006 Revision, published June 30, 2006, at 71 FR 37694.

For the period beginning July 1, 2007, and ending on December 31, 2007, the prompt payment interest rate and the contract disputes interest rate is 5\3/4\ per centum per annum.

This is Supplement No. 14 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2006 Revision, published June 30, 2006, at 71 FR 37694.

This is Supplement No. 13 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2006 Revision, published June 30, 2006 at 71 FR 37694.

This is Supplement No. 11 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2006 Revision, published June 30, 2006, at 71 FR 37694.

TreasuryDirect is an account-based, book-entry, online system for purchasing, holding, and conducting transactions in Treasury securities. An account owner currently accesses his or her account using a password to authenticate the account owner's identity. Treasury is now introducing additional customer-based authentication mechanisms for accessing accounts. This final rule provides Treasury the flexibility to require additional methods of authentication for the protection of customer accounts. Treasury is also strengthening its ability to respond to attempted fraud and abuse of TreasuryDirect. Currently, Treasury has the authority to close any account. This rule explicitly permits Treasury to liquidate the securities held in the account to be closed and pay the proceeds to the person entitled.

This is Supplemental No. 8 to the Treasury Department Circular 570; 2006 Revision, published June 30, 2006, at 71 FR 37694.

This is Supplement No.7 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2006 Revision, published June 20, 2006, at 71 FR 37694.

This final rule provides that the Department of the Treasury may announce that certain marketable Treasury securities to be offered will not be eligible for purchase or holding in the Legacy Treasury Direct system. Treasury is issuing this amendment to the auction rules because the Legacy Treasury Direct system will eventually be phased out.

This interim rule describes the rules applicable to the offset of Federal nontax payments to collect delinquent debts owed to States pursuant to reciprocal agreements between the Secretary of the Treasury and the States. In addition to providing for the offset of Federal nontax payments, the reciprocal agreements will provide for the offset of State payments to collect delinquent, nontax Federal debts. The offsets described in this rule will be processed by the Treasury Offset Program (TOP). The Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS) established TOP in order to centralize the process by which Federal payments are withheld or reduced (in other words, offset) to collect delinquent debts. This interim rule specifically applies to the centralized offset of Federal nontax payments by Federal disbursing officials to collect delinquent debts owed to States pursuant to reciprocal agreements. Therefore, this interim rule affects persons who owe delinquent debts to a State of the United States and who receive Federal payments. It also affects persons who owe delinquent, nontax Federal debts and who receive payments from States. This rule does not apply to collection of past-due support debts (see 31 CFR 285.1), the offset of Federal tax refund payments, the offset of Federal salary payments, or the offset of other Federal payments excluded from offset by law.

For the period beginning January 1, 2007, and ending on June 30, 2007, the prompt payment interest rate is 5\1/4\ per centum per annum.

The Financial Management Service, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to make this opportunity to comment on a continuing information collection. By this notice, the Financial Management Service solicits comments concerning the ``Final Rule Management of Federal Agency Disbursements.''