5 U.S.C. § 5520a — Garnishment of pay

This section defines several terms and sets rules for garnishing federal employee pay.

(a) Definitions. (1) “Agency” means each federal government agency, including: (A) an executive agency, except the Government Accountability Office; (B) the United States Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission; (C) an agency in the judicial branch; and (D) an agency in the legislative branch, including the Government Accountability Office, each congressional Member’s office, each congressional committee, and each other congressional office. (2) “Employee” means an employee of an agency, including a Member of Congress as defined in section 2106. (3) “Legal process” means a writ, order, summons, or similar garnishment process that: (A) comes from a court with proper authority in a State, territory, or possession of the United States, or from an authorized official acting under that court’s order or under State or local law; and (B) orders the employee’s agency to withhold money from the employee’s pay and pay that money to another person to satisfy a specifically described legal debt of the employee, or to recover attorney fees, interest, or court costs. (4) “Pay” means: (A) basic pay; premium pay under subchapter V; payments under subchapters VI, VII, or VIII; severance and back pay under subchapter IX; sick pay; incentive pay; and any other compensation for personal services, whether called wages, salary, commission, bonus pay, or something else; but (B) it does not include awards for making suggestions.

(b) Subject to this section and section 303 of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1673), an agency’s pay to an employee may be reached by legal process in the same way and to the same extent as pay from a private person.

(c) (1) Legal process covered by this section may be served by certified or registered mail with a return receipt requested, or personally, on: (A) the agent designated by regulation to receive service; or (B) the agency head, if no agent has been designated. (2) The process must include enough information to identify the employee and the payments quickly.

(d) A person designated by law or regulation to accept service must respond to legal process or interrogatories within 30 days after effective service, or within a longer period allowed by applicable State law. As soon as possible, and no later than 15 days after effective service, that person must send written notice, with a copy of the process, to the affected employee at the employee’s duty station or last-known home address.

(e) An employee whose duties include answering interrogatories under this section may not be disciplined and may not face civil or criminal liability or a penalty because of information the employee discloses while carrying out those duties and that relates directly or indirectly to answering an interrogatory.

(f) An agency affected by legal process does not have to change its normal pay or payment schedule to comply.

(g) The United States, an agency, and a disbursing officer are not liable for a payment made from money owed or payable to an employee under legal process that is regular on its face, if the payment follows this section and its regulations. When deciding the amount due from or payable by an agency to an employee, exclude amounts that section 462(g) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 662(g)) would exclude.

(h) (1) If an agency receives more than one legal process concerning the same payments to an employee, those payments, subject to section 303 of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1673), must satisfy the processes in the order they were served. A later process is paid from what remains after earlier processes are satisfied. (2) A process under section 459 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 659) enforcing the employee’s child-support or alimony obligation takes priority over a process under this section.

(i) This section does not change or override section 459 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 659) concerning legal process enforcing an individual’s child-support or alimony obligations.

(j) (1) Regulations implementing this section must be issued: (A) by the President or designee for each executive agency; for Postal Service employees, by the President or, at the President’s choice, the Postmaster General; (B) jointly by the Senate President pro tempore and the Speaker of the House, or their designees, for the legislative branch; and (C) by the Chief Justice or designee for the judicial branch. (2) The regulations must allow an agency to add its administrative garnishment costs to the garnishment and keep recovered costs as offsetting collections.

(k) (1) Within 180 days after this Act’s enactment, the Secretaries of the concerned executive departments must issue regulations for uniformed-service members. (2) The regulations must provide for: (A) involuntary allotment of a uniformed-service member’s pay for a debt to a third party established by a final judgment of a court with proper authority and determined by proper military or executive authority to meet the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act’s procedural requirements (50 App. U.S.C. 501 et seq.); and (B) consideration of a member’s absence from a court proceeding caused by military-duty demands. (3) The concerned Secretaries must make these regulations as uniform as practicable across the uniformed services. The Secretary of Defense must consult the Secretary of Homeland Security about regulations that could affect Coast Guard members when the Coast Guard is operating as part of the Navy.