[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 7, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 7CFR3.23]

[Page 264-265]
 
                          TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
 
PART 3_DEBT MANAGEMENT--Table of Contents
 
                        Subpart B_Debt Collection
 
Sec. 3.23  Collection by administrative offset.

    (a) Whenever feasible, each agency of the Department of Agriculture 
must use, or request any other Federal agency to use, administrative 
offset in accordance with 31 U.S.C. 3716 and 4 CFR 102.3 to collect 
debts due the United

[[Page 265]]

States. The debt need not be reduced to judgment or be undisputed.
    (b) The feasibility of collecting a debt by administrative offset 
will be determined on a case-by-case basis considering among other 
factors the following:
    (1) Legal impediments to administrative offset, such as contract 
provisions, or degree of certainty as to the factual basis (other than 
the debt amount) of the Government's claim.
    (2) Practicality, considering such questions as costs in time and 
money of administrative offset relative to the size of the debt.
    (3) Whether offset would substantially interfere with or defeat the 
purposes of a program authorizing payments against which offset is 
contemplated, as where payment is an advance for future performance by 
the debtor of a service the Government desires.
    (4) Whether the agency has substantiated the existence of the debt.
    (c) The offset will be effected 31 days after the debtor receives a 
Notice of Intent to Collect by Administrative Offset, or when a stay of 
offset expires, unless the agency determines under Sec. 3.26 that 
immediate action is necessary. If the debtor owes more than one debt, 
amounts recovered through administrative offset may be applied to them 
in any order, with attention to applicable statutes of limitation.
    (d) These procedures will be used to collect any debt subject to 31 
U.S.C. 3716, including contract debts, but not including 
intracontractual claims or intracontractual disputes. A contracting 
officer administering a claim under the Contract Disputes Act (CDA), 41 
U.S.C. 601-613 must promptly refer the claim to the agency debt 
management officer for consideration of administrative offset apart from 
CDA proceedings.
    (e) An agency debt management officer will determine the prima facie 
existence of the debt, the feasibility of administrative offset as a 
means of collection and what monies, if any, are payable or may become 
payable to the debtor. No agency employee may act as debt management 
officer for the consideration of collection by administrative offset in 
a matter for which the employee was a contracting officer.
    (f) An agency reviewing officer will afford debtors review of the 
issue of administrative offset under these rules. No agency employee may 
act as a reviewing officer for the consideration of collection by 
administrative offset in a matter for which the employee was a 
contracting officer or a debt management officer.

[50 FR 7722, Feb. 26, 1985, as amended at 55 FR 38662, Sept. 20, 1990]