In December 2000, Congress enacted the Omnibus Appropriation Act (PL 106-554)
that contained, among its various provisions, amendments
to the federal statutes dealing with the interest
rate on federal judgments. 28 U.S.C. §1961, 18 U.S.C. §3612, and 40 U.S.C.
§258(e)(1) tie interest rates on judgments to
Treasury’s 52-week T-bill interest rate. Expecting that Treasury would discontinue
auctions of the 52 week T-bills in the future, Congress passed legislation to
establish a new interest rate index that was readily
available. Treasury will, in fact, discontinue the
auction of 52-week T-bills at the end of this month. The revised sections took
effect on all judgments entered on and after December
21, 2000. (Prior judgments will use the old auction rates.) Only the rate that is applied to judgments has changed. All other
computational procedures remain the same. Interest rates
are now changed weekly.
Current rates can be found at http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/H15/Current
The applicable rate is listed under US Government
Securities - Treasury Constant Maturities - 1-year. The specific rate is found
under the column headed week ending MM/DD, where
MM/DD is the month and week ending date, e.g., Jan 26 or Feb 2. Use
the rate for the calendar week preceding the date of the Judgment.
If there
is a need for rates that were in effect for periods before receipt of this
notice, they can be found by selecting the
"Historical Data" tab at the top of the page, then scrolling down to
US Government Securities - Treasury Constant Maturities - 1 year -weekly
(Friday). If you have any questions regarding the changes to
the rate, or have problems identifying which rate
is applicable, please contact Policy Staff, in the Administrative Office of the
Courts Accounting and Financial Systems Division,
at (202) 502-2200.