[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 253 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 253

 To authorize the garnishment of Federal employees' pay, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 28 (legislative day, January 5), 1993

    Mr. Craig (for himself, Mr. Pryor, and Mr. Roth) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                          Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize the garnishment of Federal employees' pay, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Garnishment Equalization Act of 
1993''.

SEC. 2. GARNISHMENT OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' PAY.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter II of chapter 55 of title 5, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new 
section:
``Sec. 5520a. Garnishment of pay
    ``(a) For purposes of this section--
            ``(1) `agency' means each agency of the Federal Government, 
        including--
                    ``(A) an executive agency, except for the General 
                Accounting Office;
                    ``(B) the United States Postal Service and the 
                Postal Rate Commission;
                    ``(C) any agency of the judicial branch of the 
                Government; and
                    ``(D) any agency of the legislative branch of the 
                Government, including the General Accounting Office, 
                each office of a Member of Congress, a committee of the 
                Congress, or other office of the Congress;
            ``(2) `employee' means an employee of an agency or member 
        of the uniformed services as defined under section 2101(3);
            ``(3) `legal process' means any writ, order, summons, or 
        other similar process in the nature of garnishment, that--
                    ``(A) is issued by a court of competent 
                jurisdiction within any State, territory, or possession 
                of the United States, or an authorized official 
                pursuant to an order of such a court or pursuant to 
                State or local law; and
                    ``(B) orders the employing agency of such employee 
                to withhold an amount from the pay of such employee, 
                and make a payment of such withholding to another 
                person, for a specifically described satisfaction of a 
                legal debt of the employee, or recovery of attorney's 
                fees, interest, or court costs; and
            ``(4) `pay' means--
                    ``(A) basic pay, premium pay paid under subchapter 
                V, any payment received under subchapter VI, VII, or 
                VIII, severance and back pay paid under subchapter IX, 
                sick pay, incentive pay, and any other compensation 
                paid or payable for personal services, whether such 
                compensation is denominated as wages, salary, 
                commission, bonus pay or otherwise; and
                    ``(B) does not include awards for making 
                suggestions.
    ``(b) Subject to the provisions of this section and the provisions 
of section 303 of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1673) 
pay from an agency to an employee is subject to legal process in the 
same manner and to the same extent as if the agency were a private 
person.
    ``(c)(1) Service of legal process to which an agency is subject 
under this section may be accomplished by certified or registered mail, 
return receipt requested, or by personal service, upon--
            ``(A) the appropriate agent designated for receipt of such 
        service of process pursuant to the regulations issued under 
        this section; or
            ``(B) the head of such agency, if no agent has been so 
        designated.
    ``(2) Such legal process shall be accompanied by sufficient 
information to permit prompt identification of the employee and the 
payments involved.
    ``(d) Whenever any person, who is designated by law or regulation 
to accept service of process to which an agency is subject under this 
section, is effectively served with any such process or with 
interrogatories, such person shall respond thereto within thirty days 
(or within such longer period as may be prescribed by applicable State 
law) after the date effective service thereof is made, and shall, as 
soon as possible but not later than fifteen days after the date 
effective service is made, send written notice that such process has 
been so served (together with a copy thereof) to the affected employee 
at his or her duty station or last-known home address.
    ``(e) No employee whose duties include responding to 
interrogatories pursuant to requirements imposed by this section shall 
be subject to any disciplinary action or civil or criminal liability or 
penalty for, or on account of, any disclosure of information made by 
such employee in connection with the carrying out of any of such 
employee's duties which pertain directly or indirectly to the answering 
of any such interrogatory.
    ``(f) Agencies affected by legal process under this section shall 
not be required to vary their normal pay and disbursement cycles in 
order to comply with any such legal process.
    ``(g) Neither the United States, an agency, nor any disbursing 
officer shall be liable with respect to any payment made from payments 
due or payable to an employee pursuant to legal process regular on its 
face, provided such payment is made in accordance with this section and 
the regulations issued to carry out this section.
    ``(h)(1) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (2), if an agency 
is served under this section with more than one legal process with 
respect to the same payments due or payable to an employee, then such 
payments shall be available, subject to section 303 of the Consumer 
Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1673), to satisfy such processes in 
priority based on the time of service, with any such process being 
satisfied out of such amounts as remain after satisfaction of all such 
processes which have been previously served.
    ``(2) A legal process to which an agency is subject under sections 
459, 461, and 462 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 659, 661, and 
662) for the enforcement of the employee's legal obligation to provide 
child support or make alimony payments, shall have priority over any 
legal process to which an agency is subject under this section.
    ``(i) The provisions of this section shall not modify or supersede 
the provisions of sections 459, 461, and 462 of the Social Security Act 
(42 U.S.C. 659, 661, and 662) concerning legal process brought for the 
enforcement of an individual's legal obligations to provide child 
support or make alimony payments.
    ``(j)(1) Regulations implementing the provisions of this section 
shall be promulgated--
            ``(A) by the President or his designee for each executive 
        agency, except--
                    ``(i) with regard to members of the armed forces as 
                defined under section 2101, the President or, at his 
                discretion, the Secretary of Defense shall promulgate 
                such regulations; and
                    ``(ii) with regard to employees of the United 
                States Postal Service, the President or, at his 
                discretion, the Postmaster General shall promulgate 
                such regulations;
            ``(B) jointly by the President pro tempore of the Senate 
        and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, or their 
        designee, for the legislative branch of the Government; and
            ``(C) by the Chief Justice of the United States or his 
        designee for the judicial branch of the Government.
    ``(2) Such regulations shall provide that an agency's 
administrative costs in executing a garnishment action may be added to 
the garnishment, and that the agency may retain costs recovered as 
offsetting collections.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--(1) The table of chapters 
for chapter 55 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting 
after the item relating to section 5520 the following:

``5520a. Garnishment of pay.''.
    (2) Section 410(b) of title 39, United States Code, is amended--
            (A) by redesignating the second paragraph (9) (relating to 
        the Inspector General Act of 1978) as paragraph (10); and
            (B) by adding at the end thereof the following new 
        paragraph:
            ``(11) section 5520a of title 5.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall take effect 180 days after 
the date of enactment of this Act.

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