Weekend Reading on Your Federal Benefits 12-18.jpg

(for the week of March 17th – March 23rd)

You’re too busy during the week to keep up on all the news around your employee benefits and pay. My weekly summary of the most interesting and relevant news stories could help you and includes my comments and insights.

By the way, if you’ve read something about your employee benefits that you think is important or interesting, share it. And, let me know about news sources that you follow. Have a great weekend.

George Ray
Federal Benefits Online

In this week’s Federal benefits news, we await a signature on the final spending bill, get the new rules on weather and safety leave, and learn how the Holman rule could dismantle Federal agencies. We also want to know how big of a bonus you received, and I’ll answer the question ‘could I lose my Federal pension?’. We'd better get started.

Note: It's my birthday tomorrow (really), but here are your instructions-- DO NOT CONGRATULATE.

Senate Sends Shutdown-Averting $1.3 Trillion Spending Bill to Trump's Desk

Trump Reignites Shutdown Possibility With Spending Bill Veto Threat

From Govexec.com

Early Friday morning the Senate passed a $1.3 trillion funding package and sent it to the President for his signature. This should end the threat of another shutdown except that in a related story from Government Executive there is some concern of the President vetoing the legislation due to lack of funding for a border wall and the fact that the DACA recipients were not addressed. I don’t really have much to add to this as it’s gotten a bit tiresome. Maybe you agree. As of publication, we don’t yet know the outcome. (Cue dramatic music). Will there be another shutdown? Find out what happens after the commercial break. (Sorry, this is your livelihood, not a reality show. Please let them know.)

Rules Finalized on ‘Weather and Safety Leave’

Fedweek.com

This has been a tough Winter for most of the country. Lots of snow out East. And hail, tornados, and excessive amounts of rain have hit throughout other areas of the US. Weather events can have an impact on agencies and their employees by creating safety issues. How to handle these types of events had never officially been addressed until now.

OPM has issued final rules, effective April 20th, that define when agencies may excuse employees with pay for part or all of a workday due to hazardous weather or other safety concerns. The new category of paid leave, called “weather and safety leave”, largely replaces prior policies under administrative leave, also called excused absences. Examples of events that could jeopardize an employee’s safety were mentioned in the original draft of the rules and include things like terroristic attacks; natural events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, and snowstorms; and localized emergencies such as power outages, building fires or burst water pipes.

These leave periods are generally provided through an operating announcement. In the Washington, D.C. area, the announcements are made by OPM, while in other places they are usually the responsibility of regional Federal Executive Boards. (Read my article “What Do Federal Executive Boards Do” to learn more about the value they provide.)

Back to the Future: How to Cut Federal Salaries and Agency Programs

From Fedsmith.com

Back in the 19th century, an Indiana senator with an intense aversion for Federal spending named William S. Holman got a rule enacted by Congress which was designed to cut government spending. “The Holman Rule is a method for cutting spending by reducing the number of federal officials and cutting their salaries. It is also a way to quickly reduce the compensation of any person paid out of Treasury funds and to reduce the amount of money spent through an appropriations bill.” according to the article’s author Ralph Smith. The rule was eliminated in 1983, but it was re-adopted by Congress in a contentious March 20, 2018 vote.

There are many who are not happy about that. Congressman Gerald Connolly (D-VA) said it’s a ‘cynical and dangerous attack on federal workers that allows members of Congress to reduce the salaries of federal employees. This archaic tool, also known as the Armageddon Rule, is nothing more than a backdoor way for Republicans to dismantle the federal workforce and carry out political vendettas at the expense of career civil servants.’ It’s yet to be seen if the rule can be used to essentially shut down agencies (for example, those that had been previously targeted by the administration) by reducing salaries so much (down to as little as $1.00) that everyone would simply just leave. And since we’re talking about pay . . .

Legislation Would Make Federal Employee Bonuses Public Information

From Fedsmith.com

Congressman Mark Sanford (R-SC) believes in greater transparency so he introduced the Federal Employee Bonus Disclosure Act, that starting in 2019, would make all Federal employee bonuses publicly available and would require reports to Congress on any performance-based bonuses over $10,000.

In an editorial in the Washington Examiner, Sanford and co-author Adam Andrzejewski said that “in fiscal year 2016, the Federal government awarded 1 million performance bonuses, racking up a $1.1 billion tab paid for taxpayers. Every cent, however, was hidden from public disclosure. Anti-transparency language inserted into government union contracts is blocking the right of taxpayers to see how their money is being spent.”

Much of the gnashing of teeth on bonuses stems from a Treasury watchdog report that said the IRS awarded $1.7 million in bonuses in fiscal year 2016-17 and that 2,000 IRS employees received ‘high-performing’ bonuses despite being admonished for serious misconduct such as unauthorized access to tax return information, substance abuse, and sexual misconduct. The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has also had some unflattering press on undeserved performance bonuses as well.

Salary data for Federal employees have been publicly available for years (with some exceptions) although there also seems to have been a recent policy shift at OPM on what is getting reported (Lawmakers Want to Know Why OPM is Suddenly Withholding Federal Employee Salary Data). So, with incidents like those to provide fuel, I’m thinking this will probably take off, although not without a lot of heated debate.

Could I Lose My Federal Pension?

From federalbenefitsonline.com

Late last week we learned that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Almost immediately, the press began to report that McCabe had lost his pension—something that he had worked towards for more than 20 years. So, here’s a question (several actually) that came to me from a reader. Could I lose my Federal pension? Let’s figure it out.

See you next week. Thanks!

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