[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 34, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 34CFR30.20]

[Page 50-51]
 
                           TITLE 34--EDUCATION
 
PART 30--DEBT COLLECTION--Table of Contents
 
       Subpart C--What Provisions Apply to Administrative Offset?
 
Sec. 30.20  To what do Secs. 30.20-30.31 apply?

                        General Offset Procedures


    (a)(1)(i) Sections 30.20-30.31 establish the general procedures used 
by the Secretary to collect debts by administrative offset.
    (ii) The Secretary uses the procedures established under other 
regulations, including Sec. 30.33, What procedures does the Secretary 
follow for IRS

[[Page 51]]

tax refund offsets?, 34 CFR part 31, Salary Offset for Federal Employees 
Who Are Indebted to the United States Under Programs Administrated by 
the Secretary of Education, and 34 CFR part 32, Salary Offset to Recover 
Overpayments of Pay or Allowances from Department of Education 
Employees, if the conditions requiring application of those special 
procedures exists.
    (2) The word ``offset'' is used in this subpart to refer to the 
collection of a debt by administrative offset.
    (b) The Secretary does not rely on 31 U.S.C. 3716 as authority for 
offset if:
    (1) The debt is owed by a State or local government;
    (2) The debt, or the payment against which offset would be taken, 
arises under the Social Security Act;
    (3) The debt is owed under:
    (i) The Internal Revenue Code of 1954; or
    (ii) The tariff laws of the United States; or
    (4) The right to collect the debt first accrued more than ten years 
before initiation of the offset.
    (c)(1) The Secretary may rely on 31 U.S.C. 3716 as authority for 
offset of a debt to which paragraph (b)(4) of this section would 
otherwise apply if facts material to the Government's right to collect 
the debt were not known and could not reasonably have been known by the 
official or officials of the Government who are charged with the 
responsibility to discover and collect the debt.
    (2) If paragraph (c)(1) of this section applies, the Secretary may 
rely on 31 U.S.C. 3716 as authority for offset up to 10 years after the 
date that the official or officials described in that paragraph first 
knew or reasonably should have known of the right of the United States 
to collect the debt.
    (d) The Secretary determines when the right to collect a debt first 
accrued under the existing law regarding accrual of debts such as 28 
U.S.C. 2415.

(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e-3(a)(1) and 1226a-1, 31 U.S.C. 3716(b))

[51 FR 24099, July 1, 1986, as amended at 51 FR 35646, Oct. 7, 1986; 53 
FR 33425, Aug. 30, 1988; 54 FR 43583, Oct. 26, 1989]