§7109. Interest

(a) Period.-

(1) In general.-Interest on an amount found due a contractor on a claim shall be paid to the contractor for the period beginning with the date the contracting officer receives the contractor's claim, pursuant to section 7103(a) of this title, until the date of payment of the claim.

(2) Defective certification.-On a claim for which the certification under section 7103(b)(1) of this title is found to be defective, any interest due under this section shall be paid for the period beginning with the date the contracting officer initially receives the contractor's claim until the date of payment of the claim.

(b) Rate.-Interest shall accrue and be paid at a rate which the Secretary of the Treasury shall specify as applicable for each successive 6-month period. The rate shall be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury taking into consideration current private commercial rates of interest for new loans maturing in approximately 5 years.

( Pub. L. 111–350, §3, Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3825 .)

In subsection (a)(2), the words "on or after the date of the enactment of this Act", "the later of", and "or the date of the enactment of this Act" are omitted as obsolete.

Subsection (b) is substituted for "The interest provided for in this section shall be paid at the rate established by the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to Public Law 92–41 (85 Stat. 97) for the Renegotiation Board" to eliminate obsolete language and to codify the criteria under which the interest rate is computed. Section 2(a)(3) of the Act of July 1, 1971 ( Pub. L. 92–41, 85 Stat. 97 ), amended section 105(b)(2) of the Renegotiation Act of 1951 (Mar. 23, 1951, ch. 15, 65 Stat. 13 ) by adding provisions substantially similar to those enacted here. However, the Renegotiation Act of 1951 (Mar. 23, 1951, ch. 15, 65 Stat. 7 ) was omitted from the Code pursuant to section 102(c)(1) of the Act (65 Stat. 8), amended several times, the last being Public Law 94–185 (89 Stat. 1061), which provided that most provisions of that Act do not apply to receipts and accruals attributable to contract performance after September 30, 1976, and in view of the termination of the Renegotiation Board and the transfer of property and records of the Board to the Administrator of the General Services Administration on March 31, 1979, pursuant to Public Law 95–431 (92 Stat. 1043). Although the Renegotiation Board is no longer in existence, Federal agencies, including the General Services Administration, are required to use interest rates that are computed under the criteria set out in this subsection. See 31:3902(a) and the website of the Bureau of the Public Debt, available at http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdprmt2.htm. For an example of publication of rates under the criteria enacted here, see Federal Register, volume 67, number 247, page 78566, December 24, 2002.