May 21, 2008
A summary of daily news relevant to the federal workforce produced by the Partnership for Public Service.
- Bill Could Mean 5 Years of Higher Pay
- Federal Diary: Bill Seeks to End Salary Penalty for Rehired Retirees
- Defense Secretary: Navy, Air Force May Need to Subsidize Army Soon
- Celebrate Public Service at a Washington Nationals Game!
Bill Could Mean 5 Years of Higher Pay
Federal Times
By Stephen Losey and Rick Maze
House lawmakers are proposing larger-than-average
pay raises for military personnel for the next five years. If approved,
that likely means big raises as well for federal civilian employees who
are typically given the same raise as the military.
The
2009 Defense authorization bill passed last week by the House Armed
Services Committee would require military pay raises from 2010 to 2013
to be a half-percentage point higher than the employment cost index
(ECI) -- the annual increase in wages and salaries for workers in the
private sector.
For 2009, the bill would provide military service members an average 3.9 percent pay raise in fiscal 2009.
In nearly every year for the last 20 years, Congress has, with strong
bipartisan support, given equal raises to civilian employees and
military personnel.
Federal employee organizations applauded the bill.
"We need to start closing the [salary] gap between the public and
private sector," said Jessica Klement, government affairs director for
the Federal Managers Association.
In
February, President Bush proposed raising federal employees' pay by an
average of 2.9 percent, and service members' pay by 3.4 percent.
Rep.
Thelma Drake, R-Va., who sponsored the amendment to require the
military raises, said this would not completely eliminate the pay gap
between the private sector and the military, but it would leave it at
less than one percentage point.
The
House passed similar legislation, also sponsored by Drake, as part of
its version of the 2008 Defense bill. Although that provision died in
negotiations with the Senate, troops and federal employees did get a
pay increase this January that was 3.5 percent -- 0.5 percentage points
higher than private-sector raises.
The
Defense authorization bill also contains several measures that could
help civilian federal employees who are deployed to war zones such as
Iraq and Afghanistan.
One
provision would allow agencies to give deployed civilians the same
wartime benefits as the State Department's Foreign Service officers.
This could mean deployed civilians would be eligible for danger pay,
and if they are killed in a combat zone, their families could receive
monthly compensation benefits and funeral expenses.
That
provision is long overdue, Klement said. "There are way too many
disparities between what the military receives and what civilians get
in combat zones," Klement said. "When a civilian fights side by side
with the military in combat, there's no reason they shouldn't get the
same benefits."
But
the benefits aren't guaranteed under the provision, which was added by
Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark. It would be up to the head of each agency to
approve the added benefits for agency employees.
Jacqueline Simon, public policy director for the American Federation of
Government Employees, said Congress will need to provide agencies with
additional money to pay for those benefits, so they don't end up
scraping money from other programs or ignoring the flexibilities.
"Given
the hazards [deployed employees face], agencies would have a lot of
explaining to do if they don't use it," Simon said.
The
bill also orders the Pentagon to review and improve how it provides
medical treatment to civilians who are wounded in conflict areas. The
committee released a report April 30 that said some Defense civilian
employees do not receive proper medical care for injuries they suffered
in Iraq.
Another provision aims to keep Defense from furloughing its civilian
employees during budget crunches. The bill would require the Pentagon
to certify that it took all other possible measures before issuing
furlough notices. The Pentagon issued furlough notices to 200,000
civilian and contract employees in December when Congress and Bush
could not agree on an emergency war supplemental spending bill. The
bill eventually passed, and no employees were furloughed.
The
bill also orders Defense to consider creating a civilian police officer
corps to provide security at military installations.
Bill Seeks to End Salary Penalty for Rehired Retirees
The Washington
Post
By Stephen Barr
Bring back federal retirees for short-term projects. Bring them back as mentors.
That was the message delivered by the Office of Personnel Management
yesterday to a House subcommittee reviewing legislation that would
remove a financial penalty for federal retirees who wish to rejoin the
government.
Currently, the salaries of retirees are reduced by
the amount of their pension during their period of re-employment. In
some scenarios, a retiree could return and be working for free.
The Bush administration and some members of Congress, such as Reps. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Kenny Marchant
(R-Tex.), have proposed allowing agencies, on their own, to rehire
federal retirees without a salary offset. Now, agencies must ask the
OPM for a waiver to bring back a retiree.
Although the Bush
administration has urged agencies to step up their recruitment of young
and mid-career employees, some officials are worried that the
government will lose seasoned employees because of retirements over the
next decade. Yesterday, Rep. Danny K. Davis
chaired a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform
subcommittee on the federal workforce on whether to change the rules on
the reemployment of federal retirees. (D-Ill.)
Federal agencies expect to
lose a substantial number of baby boomers during the next decade, and
if agencies falter in hiring, many managers would like to lure back
retired workers who have the experience and skills the agencies need to
carry out their missions.
Reemployed annuitants in the workforce
numbered just a few thousand, or about 0.3 percent of the executive
branch last year, testified Patrick Purcell, a pay and benefits expert at the Congressional Research Service.
Historically,
members of Congress have been wary of permitting government workers to
draw "dual compensation" or to "double dip." To prevent abuse, bills
pending in the House and the Senate would limit the number of days each
year that a retiree could work for the government.
The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association said it supported ending the salary offset. Dan Adcock,
assistant legislative director for the group, told the House panel that
many retirees avoided the red tape involved in obtaining an OPM waiver
by going to work for a government contractor "where their federal
annuity presents no barrier to being paid full salary at the new job."
But Maureen Gilman, legislative director for the National Treasury Employees Union,
said the union was not aware of any serious problems with the current
limitation on retirees and expressed concern that the Davis bill "could
easily be subject to abuse" because of "the lack of standards and the
elimination of OPM approval."
Too many agencies are understaffed
because of inadequate funding, not because of a lack of qualified job
applicants, Gilman said.
Defense Secretary: Navy, Air Force May Need to Subsidize Army Soon
Congress Daily
By Megan Scully
Defense Secretary Robert Gates
acknowledged Tuesday that the military can manipulate its fiscal 2008
base budget to pay soldiers until late July, but warned that doing so
would only provide temporary relief and could have significant
consequences for the armed services.
Appearing before the Senate
Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Gates said the Pentagon could dip
into the Air Force and Navy's fourth-quarter military personnel
accounts to cover troop costs through most of July.
"Doing so,
however, is a shell game which will disrupt existing programs and push
the services' [operations and maintenance] accounts to the edge of
fiscal viability," Gates told the panel.
The heavily deployed
Army already has been borrowing from its fourth-quarter accounts to
cover war costs. By June 15, the Army would run out of funding to pay
soldiers without either an enacted war funding bill or a significant
loan from the Navy or Air Force.
Around July 5, the Army's
operations and maintenance accounts would run dry, which would result
in civilian furloughs and force the Pentagon to limit training and
reduce family support activities, Gates said.
Aside from a
delayed supplemental spending bill's impact on the services' accounts,
the military would have to suspend the Commander's Emergency Response
Program if it does not soon receive its requested war funds for this
year, Gates said. The program provides commanders in the field with
funds to pay for urgent local needs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress
last year approved $500 million of the total fiscal 2008 $1.7 billion
request for the program. The military, meanwhile, cannot reprogram
funds to fill that account as they wait for enactment of the
supplemental.
"Without the balance of $1.2 billion, this vital program will come to a standstill," Gates said.
Gates,
who testified as the Senate was expected to begin floor consideration
of the supplemental spending bill, acknowledged Congress may approve
the war bill before departing for the weeklong Memorial Day recess. But
Gates said he is obligated to devise contingency plans in the event of
further delays. If the war spending bill does not make its way through
Congress before the recess, the Defense Department will submit
reprogramming requests to Congress next Tuesday "to prevent depletion
of the Army military personnel account and the Army operations and
maintenance account," according to Gates' written testimony. On June 9,
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England will give the services guidance
on furloughing civilian employees.
Gates urged Congress to pass
an fiscal 2009 Defense spending bill this year and not resort to a
continuing resolution to fund the department. House Defense
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., already has
expressed concerns that Congress will not take up the base defense bill
before adjourning this year.
A continuing resolution, Gates said,
would shortchange the military billions needed for new programs. Among
funds that would be lost in a continuing resolution are $8.7 billion
needed to enlarge the Army and Marine Corps, $1.8 billion to continue
implementation of the 2005 base closures and $246 million needed to
stand up the nascent U.S. Africa Command.
Celebrate Public Service at a Washington Nationals Game!
The Partnership for Public Service
Join the Washington Nationals and the Partnership for Public Service as we celebrate public service this summer -- come cheer the Nationals on to
victory! Get discounted tickets for three summer games --
click here to purchase
through the Partnership for Public Service.
You do not need to be a federal employee
to receive this discount.
Discounted tickets are available for games on:
- Saturday, May 24 vs. Milwaukee Brewers
- Saturday, July 12 vs. Houston Astros
- Saturday, September 20 vs. San Diego Padres
Discounted ticket prices are:
- RF Mezzanine: $33 (Normally $38)
- Scoreboard Pavilion: $24 (Normally $29)
- Upper Infield Gallery: $15 (Normally $20)
