# § 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.
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**Source Credit**: (Pub. L. 111–350, § 3, Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3825.)
| RevisedSection | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 7109(a)(1) | 41:611 (1st sentence). | Pub. L. 95–563, § 12, Nov. 1, 1978, 92 Stat. 2389. |
| 7109(a)(2) | 41:611 note. | Pub. L. 102–572, title IX, § 907(a)(3), Oct. 29, 1992, 106 Stat. 4518. |
| 7109(b) | 41:611 (last sentence). | |
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 () for the Renegotiation Board” to eliminate obsolete language and to codify the criteria under which the interest rate is computed. (, ), amended section 105(b)(2) of the Renegotiation Act of 1951 (, ) by adding provisions substantially similar to those enacted here. However, the Renegotiation Act of 1951 (, ) was omitted from the Code pursuant to section 102(c)(1) of the Act (), amended several times, the last being (), which provided that most provisions of that Act do not apply to receipts and accruals attributable to contract performance after , 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 , pursuant to (). 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, .