(a) Administrative offset means the withholding of funds payable by the United States (including funds payable by the United States on behalf of a State government) to any person, or the withholding of funds held by the United States for any person, in order to satisfy a debt owed to the United States.

(b) Agency means a department, agency, court, court administrative office, or instrumentality in the executive, judicial, or legislative branch of government, including a government corporation.

(c) Chairperson means the Chairperson of the Endowment, or his or her designee.

(d) Creditor agency means the agency to which the debt is owed.

(e) Day means calendar day. To count days, include the last day of the period unless it is a Saturday, a Sunday, or a Federal legal holiday.

(f) Debt and claim are deemed synonymous and interchangeable. These terms mean money owed by a person to the United States for any reason, including loans made or guaranteed by the United States, fees, leases, rents, royalties, services, sales of real or personal property, overpayments, damages, interests, penalties, fines, forfeitures, and all other similar sources. For the purpose of administrative offset under 31 U.S.C. 3716 and subpart D of these regulations, the terms debt and claim also include money or property owed by a person to a State, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marina Islands, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

(g) Debtor means a person who owes a debt. Uses of the terms “I,” “you,” “me,” and similar references to the reader of the regulations in this part are meant to apply to debtors as defined in this paragraph (g).

(h) Delinquent debt means a debt that has not been paid within the time limit prescribed by the Endowment.

(i) Disposable pay means the part of an employee's pay that remains after deductions that are required to be withheld by law have been made.

(j) Employee means a current employee of an agency, including a current member of the Armed Forces or Reserve of the Armed Forces of the United States.

(k) Endowment means the National Endowment for the Arts.

(l) Federal Claims Collection Standards means the standards currently published at 4 CFR Chapter II. The DOJ and the Treasury have proposed a revision that would move the Federal Claims Collection Standards to 31 CFR parts 900-904. The Endowment will amend these regulations, as necessary, after the revised Federal Claims Collection Standards have been issued as final regulations.

(m) Paying agency means the agency that employs the individual who owes a debt to the United States. In some cases, the Endowment may be both the creditor agency and the paying agency.

(n) Payroll office means the office in the paying agency that is primarily responsible for payroll records and the coordination of pay matters with the appropriate personnel office.

(o) Person includes a natural person or persons, profit or non-profit corporation, partnership, association, trust, estate, consortium, state or local government, or other entity that is capable of owing a debt to the United States; however, agencies of the United States are excluded.

(p) Private collection contractor means a private debt collector under contract with an agency to collect a non-tax debt owed to the United States.

(q) Salary offset means a payroll procedure to collect a debt under 5 U.S.C. 5514 by deduction(s) at one or more officially established pay intervals from the current pay account of an employee, without his or her consent.

(r) Tax refund offset means the reduction of a tax refund by the amount of a past-due legally enforceable debt owed to the Endowment or any other Federal agency.