[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2809 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2809

To require the Environmental Protection Agency to obtain a court order 
                 to garnish wages to pay a nontax debt.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 15, 2014

Mr. Johanns (for himself, Mr. Thune, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Paul, Mr. Roberts, 
  Mr. Flake, Mr. McConnell, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Barrasso, and Mr. Enzi) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require the Environmental Protection Agency to obtain a court order 
                 to garnish wages to pay a nontax debt.

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

SECTION 1. RESTRICTION ON GARNISHMENT.

    (a) In General.--Section 3720D(a) of title 31, United States Code, 
is amended--
            (1) by striking ``Notwithstanding'' and inserting ``(1) 
        Except as provided in paragraph (2) and notwithstanding''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(2)(A) The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency 
may not garnish the disposable pay of any individual without first 
obtaining a court order.
    ``(B) The amount deducted under a court order issued under this 
paragraph for any pay period may not exceed 15 percent of the 
disposable pay of an individual, except that a greater percentage may 
be deducted with the written consent of the individual.
    ``(C) If an individual has been reemployed within 1 year after 
having been involuntarily separated from employment, a court may not 
order the garnishing of the disposable pay of an individual under this 
section before the date on which the individual has been reemployed 
continuously for 1 year.''.
    (b) Effective Date; Applicability.--The amendment made by this 
section--
            (1) shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act;
            (2) shall apply to any action by the Administrator of the 
        Environmental Protection Agency under section 3720D of title 
        31, United States Code, as in effect on the day before the date 
        of enactment of this Act, seeking to garnish the disposable pay 
        of an individual that is pending on the date of enactment of 
        this Act; and
            (3) shall not apply to any garnishment order by the 
        Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under 
        section 3720D of title 31, United States Code, as in effect on 
        the day before the date of enactment of this Act, that is final 
        on the date of enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>