Debt Collection Act Petitions Against Current Employees

<RULE> POSTAL SERVICE <CFR>39 CFR Part 961</CFR> <SUBJECT>Debt Collection Act Petitions Against Current Employees</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Postal Service. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This amends the rules of practice prescribed by the Judicial Officer for ease of understanding and to reflect current practice. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Effective February 10, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Postal Service Judicial Officer Department, 2101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22201-3078. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Staff Counsel Zahava Colicelli at (708) 812-1927. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">A. Background</HD> The Judicial Officer Department reviewed its rules for Debt Collection Act Petitions and found it necessary to make some revisions for the reader's ease of understanding. Some changes also reflect current practices. <HD SOURCE="HD1">B. Explanation of Changes</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Amendments to 39 CFR Part 961</HD> The rule is revised for better ease of understanding and to reflect current practices. <LSTSUB> <HD SOURCE="HED">List of Subjects in 39 CFR Part 961</HD> Administrative practice and procedure, Claims, Government employees, Wages. </LSTSUB> <REGTEXT TITLE="39" PART="961"> Accordingly, for the reasons stated, the Postal Service revises 39 CFR part 961 to read as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 961—DEBT COLLECTION ACT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST CURRENT EMPLOYEES</HD> <CONTENTS> <SECHD>Sec.</SECHD> <SECTNO>961.1</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 1) Authority for rules in this part.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.2</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 2) Scope of rules in this part.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.3</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 3) Definitions.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.4</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 4) Employee petition for a hearing.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.5</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 5) Effect of filing a petition.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.6</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 6) Filing, docketing, and serving documents; computation of time; representation of parties.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.7</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 7) Answer to petition.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.8</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 8) Hearing Official's authority and responsibilities.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.9</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 9) Oral hearing or submission on the written record.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.10</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 10) Effect of Hearing Official's decision; motion for reconsideration.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.11</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 11) Consequences for failure to comply with rules in this part.</SUBJECT> <SECTNO>961.12</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 12) Ex parte communications.</SUBJECT> </CONTENTS> <HD SOURCE="HED">Authority: </HD> 39 U.S.C. 204, 401; 5 U.S.C. 5514. <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 961.1</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 1) Authority for rules in this part.</SUBJECT> This part is issued by the Judicial Officer under authority delegated by the Postmaster General. </SECTION> <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 961.2</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 2) Scope of rules in this part.</SUBJECT> This part applies to: (a) The hearing provided by section 5 of the Debt Collection Act of 1982, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 5514, and in accordance with the Employee and Labor Relations Manual, sections 450 and 460, challenging the existence, amount, or the repayment schedule of an employee debt to the Postal Service; or (b) A hearing under section 5 of the Debt Collection Act when the Judicial Officer Department adjudicates a petition for a creditor agency under an agreement between the Postal Service and that agency. In such cases, all references to Postal Service in this part will be construed to refer to the creditor agency. </SECTION> <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 961.3</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 3) Definitions.</SUBJECT> As used in this part: (a) <E T="03">Employee.</E> A current Postal Service employee who is alleged to be indebted to the Postal Service. (b) <E T="03">General Counsel.</E> The General Counsel of the Postal Service or the General Counsel's designee. (c) <E T="03">Hearing Official.</E> (1) An Administrative Law Judge qualified to hear cases under the Administrative Procedure Act; (2) An Administrative Judge appointed under the Contract Disputes Act of 1978, as amended; or (3) Any other qualified person who is not under the control or supervision of the Postmaster General and is designated by the Judicial Officer to conduct the hearing. (d) <E T="03">Judicial Officer.</E> The Judicial Officer, Associate Judicial Officer, or Acting Judicial Officer of the Postal Service. (e) <E T="03">Notice of involuntary administrative salary offset.</E> The formal written notice required by section 5 of the Debt Collection Act, including the provision of notice of the procedures under this part, before involuntary offset may be taken from an employee's salary. (f) <E T="03">Days.</E> Calendar days. (g) <E T="03">Recorder.</E> The Recorder, Judicial Officer Department, United States Postal Service, located at 2101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22201-3078. The Recorder's telephone number is (703) 812-1900, and the fax number is (703) 812-1901. </SECTION> <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 961.4</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 4) Employee petition for a hearing.</SUBJECT> (a) If an employee wants to challenge the existence, amount, or repayment schedule of a debt assessed under section 5 of the Debt Collection Act, the employee or their representative must file a written petition electronically at <E T="03">https://usps-judicialoffice.journaltech.com,</E> or by mail at Recorder, Judicial Officer Department, United States Postal Service, 2101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22201-3078. The petition must be filed on or before the 15th day following the receipt of the Postal Service's notice of involuntary administrative salary offset. The Hearing Official may waive this deadline for good cause timely shown. If the Postal Service initiated involuntary administrative salary offset without issuing a notice as required by the Debt Collection Act, the Hearing Official may retain authority to resolve the debt assessment as if a notice had been issued and may order the Postal Service to return any improperly offset money. (b) A sample petition is available at the Judicial Officer Electronic Filing website ( <E T="03">https://usps-judicialoffice.journaltech.com</E> ). The petition should include the following: (1) The words “Petition for Hearing under the Debt Collection Act” at the top of the first page. (2) The employee's name, work address, home address, primary telephone number, email address, and, if applicable, any other address and telephone number at which the employee may be contacted during normal business hours. (3) The date on which the employee received the notice of involuntary administrative salary offset. (4) A copy of the notice of involuntary administrative salary offset. (5) A statement indicating whether the employee challenges: (i) The existence of the debt identified in the notice of involuntary administrative salary offset; (ii) The amount of the debt identified in the notice of involuntary administrative salary offset; and (iii) The involuntary repayment terms established by the Postal Service in the notice of involuntary administrative salary offset. (iv) For each challenge, the petition should describe the basis of the employee's disagreement. The employee should identify and explain the facts, evidence, and legal arguments that support the petition. (6) Copies of all records in the employee's possession that relate to the debt. (7) If an employee contends that the Postal Service's proposed offset schedule would result in a severe financial hardship for either the employee or the employee's spouse or dependents, the employee must propose an alternative offset schedule. The employee must provide a statement and supporting documents showing the employee's financial status. This statement must address total income from all sources; assets; liabilities; number of dependents; and expenses for food, housing, clothing, transportation, medical care, and exceptional expenses, if any. (c) The employee must file any additional information directed by the Hearing Official. </SECTION> <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 961.5</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 5) Effect of filing a petition.</SUBJECT> After receipt and docketing of the employee's petition for a hearing, further collection activity by the Postal Service must cease as required by section 5 of the Debt Collection Act until the petition is resolved by the Hearing Official. </SECTION> <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 961.6</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>(Rule 6) Filing, docketing, and serving documents; computation of time; representation of parties.</SUBJECT> (a) <E T="03">Filing.</E> The Judicial Officer Department calculates all filing deadlines in Eastern Time. After a petition is filed, all documents relating to the petition must be filed using the electronic filing system, unless the Hearing Official permits otherwise. Documents submitted using the electronic filing system are considered filed as of the date and time (Eastern Time) reflected in the system. Documents mailed to the Recorder are considered filed on the date mailed. Filings by any other means are considered filed when the Recorder receives a complete copy of the filing during normal business hours. The Recorder's normal business hours are between 8:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., Eastern Time. Documents filed by other means after 4:45 p.m., Eastern Time, or on a Saturday, Sunday, or Federal holiday, will be considered filed on the next business day. (b) <E T="03">Docketing.</E> The Recorder will maintain a record of Debt Collection Act petiti ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 19k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━