---
kind: "section"
citation: "22 U.S.C. § 2716"
title: "22"
title_heading: "Foreign Relations and Intercourse"
number: "2716"
heading: "Debt collection"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/22/2716"
units:
  - "Chapter 38 — Department of State"
---

# §2716. Debt collection

- (a) **Contract authority—**
  - (1) Subject to the availability of appropriations, the Secretary of State shall enter into contracts for collection services to recover indebtedness owed by a person, other than a [foreign country](/usc/22/2321c.md?p=2), to the United States which arises out of activities of the Department of State and is delinquent by more than 90 days.
  - (2) Each contract entered into under this section shall provide that the person with whom the [Secretary](/usc/22/277d–43.md?p=5) enters into such contract shall submit to the [Secretary](/usc/22/277d–43.md?p=5) at least once every 180 days a status report on the success of the person in collecting debts. [Section 3718 of title 31](/usc/31/3718.md) shall apply to any such contract to the extent that such section is not inconsistent with this subsection.
- (b) **Disclosure of delinquent debt to credit reporting agencies—** The Secretary of State shall, to the extent otherwise allowed by law, disclose to those credit reporting agencies to which the [Secretary](/usc/22/277d–43.md?p=5) reports loan activity information concerning any debt of more than $100 owed by a person, other than a [foreign country](/usc/22/2321c.md?p=2), to the United States which arises out of activities of the Department of State and is delinquent by more than 31 days.

## Source credit

(Aug. 1, 1956, ch. 841, title I, § 44, as added Pub. L. 101–246, title I, § 117(2), Feb. 16, 1990, 104 Stat. 25.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Prior Provisions

A prior section 44 of act Aug. 1, 1956, was renumbered section 45 by section 117(1) of Pub. L. 101–246, and subsequently renumbered, and set out as a Short Title of 1956 Amendment note under section 2651 of this title, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 102–138, title I, § 111(1), Oct. 28, 1991, 105 Stat. 654.