Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 91.djvu/192

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PUBLIC LAW 95-000—MMMM. DD, 1977

91 STAT. 158

Infra.

Notice. .,

at

PUBLIC LAW 95-30—MAY 23, 1977 payments shall be accomplished by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, or by personal service, upon the appropriate agent designated for receipt of such service of process pursuant to regulations promulgated pursuant to section 461 (or, if no agent has been designated for the governmental entity having payment responsibility for the moneys involved, then upon the head of such governmental entity). Such process shall be accompanied by sufficient data to permit prompt identification of the individual and the moneys involved. "(c) No Federal employee whose duties include responding to interrogatories pursuant to requirements imposed by section 461(b)(3) shall be subject under any law to any disciplinary action or civil or criminal liability or penalty for, or on account of, any disclosure of information made by him in connection with the carrying out of any of his duties which pertain (directly or indirectly) to the answering of any such interrogatory. "(d) Whenever any person, who is designated by law or regulation to accept service of process to which the United States is subject under this section, is effectively served with any such process or with interrogatories relating to an individual's child support or alimony payment obligations, such person shall respond thereto within thirty days (or within such longer period as may be prescribed by applicable State law) after the date effective service thereof is made, and shall, as soon as possible but not later than fifteen days after the date effective service is so made of any such process, send written notice that such process has been so served (together with a copy thereof) to the individual whose moneys are affected thereby at his duty station or last-known home address. " (e) Governmental entities affected by legal processes served for the enforcement of an individual's child support or alimony payment obligations shall not be required to vary their normal pay and disbursement cycles in order to comply with any such legal process. "(f) Neither the United States, any disbursing officer, nor governmental entity shall be liable with respect to any payment made from moneys due or payable from the United States to any individual pursuant to legal process regular on its face, if such payment is made in accordance with this section and the regulations issued to carry out this section.". (c) REGULATIONS.—Part D of title IV of such Act is further amended by adding at the end thereof the following new section: «REGULATIONS

42 USC 661. Ante, p. 157.

PERTAINING TO GARNISHMENTS

"SEC. 461. (a) Authority to promulgate regulations for the implementation of the provisions of section 459 shall, insofar as the provisions of such section are applicable to moneys due from (or payable by). . . "(1) the executive branch of the Government (mcluding m such branch, for the purposes of this subsection, the territories and possessions of the United States, the United States Postal Service, the Postal Rate Commission, any wholly owned Federal corporation created by an Act of Congress, and the government of the District of Columbia), be vested in the President (or his designee), "(2) the legislative branch of the Government, be vested jointly in the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives (or their designees), and