Except where the context clearly indicates otherwise or where the term is otherwise defined elsewhere in this subpart, the following definitions shall apply to this subpart.

(a) Agency means:

(1) An executive agency as defined by 5 U.S.C. 105;

(2) A military department as defined by 5 U.S.C. 102;

(3) The United States Postal Service and the Postal Rate Commission;

(4) An agency of the judicial branch, including a court as defined by 28 U.S.C. 610, the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation;

(5) An agency of the legislative branch, including the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives; and

(6) Other entities that are establishments of the federal government.

(b) Bureau means the Bureau of Prisons, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Federal Prison Industries, the Office of Justice Programs, and the United States Marshals Service (USMS).

(c) Certification means a written statement received by a paying agency from a creditor agency that requests the paying agency to offset the salary of an employee and specifies that appropriate procedural protections have been afforded the employee.

(d) Components means the bureaus, offices, boards, and divisions of the Department.

(e) Compromise means the forgiveness of a debt in accordance with 31 U.S.C. 3711(a)(2) and Departmental order.

(f) Creditor agency means an agency of the federal government to which the debt is owed.

(g) Department or Justice Department means the Department of Justice and its components.

(h) Disposable pay means that part of current basic pay, special pay, incentive pay, retired pay, retainer pay, and, in the case of an employee not entitled to basic pay, other authorized pay, remaining after the deduction of any amount required by law to be withheld. The Department shall allow the following deductions in determining the amount of disposable pay that is subject to salary offset:

(1) Amounts withheld from benefits payable under title II of the Social Security Act where the withholding is required by law;

(2) Federal employment taxes;

(3) Amounts mandatorily withheld for the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home;

(4) Fines and forfeiture ordered by a court-martial or by a commanding officer;

(5) Amounts deducted for Medicare;

(6) Federal, state, or local income taxes to the extent authorized or required by law, but no greater than would be the case if the employee claimed all dependents to which he or she is entitled and such additional amounts for which the employee presents evidence of a tax obligation supporting the additional withholding;

(7) Health insurance premiums;

(8) Normal retirement contributions (e.g., Civil Service Retirement deductions, Survivor Benefit Plan payments, or Retired Servicemen's Family Protection Plan payments), not including amounts deducted for supplementary coverage; and

(9) Normal life insurance premiums (e.g., Serviceman's Group Life Insurance and “Basic Life” Federal Employee's Group Life Insurance premiums), not including amounts deducted for supplementary coverage.

(i) Employee means a current employee of the Justice Department or other agency, including a current member of the Armed Forces or a Reserve of the Armed Forces of the United States.

(j) Federal Claims Collection Standards (FCCS) means standards jointly published by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General at 31 CFR parts 900-904.

(k) Hearing official means an individual responsible for conducting any hearing with respect to the existence or amount of a debt claimed and for rendering a decision on the basis of such hearing. A hearing official may not be under the supervision or control of the Attorney General when the Department is the creditor agency but may be an administrative law judge.

(l) Notice of Intent to Offset or Notice of Intent means a written notice from a creditor agency to an employee, organization, or entity stating that the debtor is indebted to the creditor agency and apprising the debtor of certain procedural rights.

(m) Notice of Salary Offset means a written notice from the paying agency to an employee after a certification has been issued by a creditor agency, informing the employee that salary offset will begin at the next officially established pay interval.

(n) Organization means the bureaus individually and the offices, boards, and divisions collectively.

(o) Organization head means any Director, Administrator, or Commissioner of the respective Department bureaus, the Director of the United States Trustee System, the Director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, and the Assistant Attorney General for Administration, who shall serve as the organization head for the offices, boards, and divisions.

(p) Paying agency means the agency of the federal government that employs the individual who owes a debt to an agency of the federal government. In some cases, the Department may be both the creditor agency and the paying agency.

(q)

(1) Payroll office means the payroll office in the paying agency that is primarily responsible for the payroll records and the coordination of pay matters with the appropriate personnel office with respect to an employee.

(2) Applicable payroll office means the Federal Bureau of Investigation voucher and Payroll Section with respect to FBI employees and the Justice Employee Data Service for all other employees of the Department.

(r) Salary offset coordination officer means an official designated by an organization head who is responsible for coordinating the debt collection activities of that organization.

[Order No. 1625-92, 57 FR 44107, Sept. 24, 1992, as amended by Order No. 2650-2003, 68 FR 4928, Jan. 31, 2003; Order No. 3089-2009, 74 FR 35117, July 20, 2009]