I

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 3060

To authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to issue regulations to require

that the pay of Federal employees be paid by electronic funds transfer

or any other method determined by the Secretary to be in the interest

of economy or effectiveness, with sufficient safeguards over the control

of, and accounting for, public funds.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEPTEMBER 14, 1993

Mr. DARDEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Government Operations

A BILL

To authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to issue regulations to require that the pay of Federal employees be

paid by electronic funds transfer or any other method

determined by the Secretary to be in the interest of

economy or effectiveness, with sufficient safeguards over

the control of, and accounting for, public funds.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Electronic Funds

5 Transfer Federal Salary Act’’.
2

•HR 3060 IH

1 SEC. 2. SAFE, ECONOMICAL, EFFECTIVE PAYROLL ADMINIS2 TRATION.

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3332 of title 31, United

4 States Code, is amended by striking subsections (a), (b),

5 (c), (d), and (e) and inserting the following new sub6 sections:

7 ‘‘(a) FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION DEFINED.—For

8 purposes of this section, the term ‘financial organization’

9 means a depository institution (as defined in section 3(c)

10 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act), a Federal or State

11 credit union (as defined in section 101 of the Federal

12 Credit Union Act), or a similar institution.

13 ‘‘(b) ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFERS OF PAYMENTS

14 OF EMPLOYEE PAY.—

15 ‘‘(1) SECRETARY AUTHORIZED TO REQUIRE

16 ELECTRONIC TRANSFERS.—Notwithstanding any

17 other provision of law, the Secretary of the Treasury

18 (hereafter in this section referred to as the ‘Sec19 retary) may prescribe regulations requiring the pay

20 of any employee of any agency to be paid by elec21 tronic funds transfer or any other method deter22 mined by the Secretary to be in the interest of econ23 omy or effectiveness if the Secretary—

24 ‘‘(A) determines that such requirement is

25 practicable; and
3

•HR 3060 IH

1 ‘‘(B) establishes and maintains sufficient

2 safeguards over the control of, and accounting

3 for, public funds in connection with any such

4 transfer.

5 ‘‘(2) DESIGNATION OF FINANCIAL ORGANIZA6 TION RECIPIENT.—Any regulation prescribed under

7 paragraph (1) shall require any employee whose pay

8 is subject to such regulation to designate the finan9 cial organization to receive the payments of such

10 pay.

11 ‘‘(3) REPORT OF DESIGNATION.—Any certifi12 cation which is made by the head of an agency with

13 respect to the payment of employee pay of an em14 ployee whose pay is subject to regulations prescribed

15 under paragraph (1) shall contain such information

16 about the financial organization designated by the

17 employee under paragraph (2) as the Secretary may

18 require.

19 ‘‘(4) TRANSFER FEES PROHIBITED.—

20 ‘‘(A) SECRETARY.—The Secretary may not

21 charge any financial organization any fee in

22 connection with any payment made in accord23 ance with this section.

24 ‘‘(B) FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION.—No fi25 nancial organization may charge any employee
4

•HR 3060 IH

1 of an agency for handling payments by the Sec2 retary to the employee in a manner authorized

3 by the Secretary pursuant to this subsection.

4 ‘‘(5) EXEMPTION AT REQUEST OF EM5 PLOYEE.—The Secretary may, at the request of any

6 employee who was employed by the United States

7 Government on the date of the enactment of the

8 Electronic Funds Transfer Federal Salary Act and

9 whose annual rate of basic pay is less than $20,000,

10 exempt such employee from the requirements of this

11 section.

12 ‘‘(6) NATIONAL SECURITY EXCEPTIONS.—

13 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—No provision of this

14 section shall be construed as impairing or af15 fecting any provision of section 102(d)(3) of the

16 National Security Act of 1947 or section 6 of

17 the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949.

18 ‘‘(B) EXEMPTION OF CIA AUTHORIZED.—

19 The Director of the Central Intelligence Agen20 cy, or a designee of the Director, may exempt

21 the Central Intelligence Agency and any em22 ployee of such agency from regulations issued

23 pursuant to paragraph (1) and the require24 ments of paragraph (3) if the Director or des25 ignee determines that compliance with such reg-
5

•HR 3060 IH

1 ulations and requirements would risk disclosure

2 of intelligence sources and methods or com3 promise the security of foreign intelligence or

4 counterintelligence activities.

5 ‘‘(c) EFFECT OF PAYMENT.—The acceptance by a fi6 nancial organization of a payment of an amount by the

7 United States in any manner authorized by the Secretary

8 pursuant to subsection (b) or (d) shall constitute full ac9 quittance of the United States for such amount.

10 ‘‘(d) PAYMENT OF OTHER AMOUNTS BY ELECTRONIC

11 FUND TRANSFERS.—The payment by the United States

12 of any amount due any person for any purpose (other than

13 pay payable to an employee of an agency) may be made

14 in any manner authorized by the Secretary pursuant to

15 this section upon receipt by the Secretary of a written re16 quest of such person for payment in such manner.’’.

17 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—

18 Section 3332 of title 31, United States Code, is amend19 ed—

20 (1) by redesignating subsection (f) as sub21 section (e); and

22 (2) by striking ‘‘The’’ in the 1st sentence of

23 subsection (e) (as so redesignated) and inserting

24 ‘‘Notwithstanding subsection (b)(1), the’’.

Æ