Debt Collection: Agriculture Making Progress in Addressing Key Challenges.

General Accounting Office Reports & Testimony, December, 2002

GAO-03-202T November 13, 2002

In December 2001, GAO testified at a hearing before the Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations, House Committee on Government Reform that the Department of Agriculture, primarily the Rural Housing Service (RHS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA), faced challenges in implementing key provisions of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (DCIA). The testimony focused on RHS's and FSA's progress in referring delinquent debt for administrative offset and cross-servicing and Agriculture's implementation of administrative wage garnishment (AWG). During the hearing, Agriculture pledged to place a higher priority on delinquent debt collection and to substantially improve the department's...