In this chapter, the following definitions apply:

(1) Replacement.—The term "replacement" means payment, reimbursement, replacement, or duplication or the expenses incident to payment, reimbursement, replacement, or duplication.

(2) Shipment.—The term "shipment"—

(A) means the transportation, or the effecting of transportation, of valuables, without limitation as to the means or facilities used or by which the transportation is effected or the person to whom it is made; and

(B) includes shipments made to any executive department, independent establishment, agency, wholly owned or mixed-ownership Government corporation, officer, or employee of the Federal Government, or any person acting on behalf of, or at the direction of, the executive department, independent establishment, agency, wholly or partly owned Government corporation, officer, or employee.

(3) Valuables.—

(A) Definition.—The term "valuables" means any articles or things or representatives of value—

(i) in which the Government, its executive departments, independent establishments, and agencies, including wholly owned Government corporations, and officers and employees of the Government or its executive departments, independent establishments, and agencies while acting in their official capacity, have any interest, or in connection with which they have any obligation or responsibility; and

(ii) which the Secretary of the Treasury declares to be valuables within the meaning of this chapter.

(B) Requirement for declaring articles or things valuable.—The Secretary shall not declare articles or things that are lost, destroyed, or damaged in the course of shipment to be valuables unless the Secretary determines that replacement of the articles or things in accordance with the procedure established in this chapter would be in the public interest.

(4) Wholly owned government corporation.—The term "wholly owned Government corporation"—

(A) means any corporation, regardless of the law under which it is incorporated, the capital of which is entirely owned by the Government; and

(B) includes the authorized officers, employees, and agents of the corporation.