[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 187 (Thursday, September 28, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66959-66960]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-21282]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Notice to Account Holder for Garnishment of 
Accounts Containing Federal Benefit Payments

AGENCY: Departmental Offices, Department of the Treasury.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Department of the Treasury will submit the following 
information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of publication of this 
notice. The public is invited to submit comments on this request.

DATES: Comments should be received on or before October 30, 2023 to be 
assured of consideration.

[[Page 66960]]


ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Copies of the submissions may be 
obtained from Spencer W. Clark by emailing [email protected], calling 
(202) 927-5331, or viewing the entire information collection request at 
www.reginfo.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Departmental Offices (DO)

    Title: Notice to Account Holder for Garnishment of Accounts 
Containing Federal Benefit Payments.
    OMB Control Number: 1505-0230.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of a currently approved 
collection.
    Description: On May 29, 2013, the Department of the Treasury, 
Social Security Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, 
Railroad Retirement Board and the Office of Personnel Management 
(Agencies) published a final rule, which governed the garnishment of 
certain federal benefit payments that are directly deposited to 
accounts at financial institutions. Social Security benefits, 
Supplemental Security Income benefits, VA benefits, Federal Railroad 
retirement benefits, Civil Service Retirement System and Federal 
Employee Retirement System benefits are exempt under federal law from 
garnishment orders. The final rule gave force and effect to the federal 
anti-garnishment statutes. The rule also addressed the hardships that 
recipients of federal benefit payments encountered when a financial 
institution placed a freeze on an account containing certain types of 
exempt federal benefit payments that had been directly deposited, and 
the difficulties that financial institutions had in determining whether 
funds deposited into an account are exempt from garnishment. The 
primary goals of the rule were (1) to ensure that benefit recipients 
have full and customary access to exempt funds; (2) to protect 
financial institutions from liability when, having received a 
garnishment order for an account holder receiving exempt federal 
benefit payments, they allow the account holder access to exempt funds 
in the account; and (3) to establish straightforward, uniform, cost 
effective procedures addressing the extent to which financial 
institutions may, pursuant to garnishment orders, freeze or seize funds 
in accounts that contain federal benefits.
    The collection of information in the Final Rule is found in 
Sec. Sec.  212.6 Rules and procedures to protect benefits and is 
authorized under 12 U.S.C. 1786 and 12 U.S.C. 1818.
    Form: None.
    Affected Public: Private Sector; State, Local and Tribal 
governments.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 487,750.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion.
    Estimated Total Number of Annual Responses: 487,750.
    Estimated Time per Response: 5-10 minutes.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 76,688.
    Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.

Spencer W. Clark,
Treasury PRA Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2023-21282 Filed 9-27-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-AK-P