Federal employees would be able to contribute more money to the Thrift Savings Plan and agencies would be given more personnel flexibility under a new civil service reform bill under consideration in the House.
The bill, which is being prepared by the Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on the Civil Service for release in March, will introduce measures to "strengthen performance management in the civil service," says subcommittee staff director George Nesterczuk.
The bill will also address human resources flexibility, the employee appeals process, workers compensation and some pay and benefits issues.
Nesterczuk said the bill will include measures for "rewarding good performers and measures that would facilitate dealing with poor performers."
Nesterczuk said the legislation will "encourage trying out new rules and regulations." The bill will propose revamping the government's personnel demonstration project authority by lifting the cap limiting projects to 5,000 participants and allowing more agencies to start projects.
"We want whole agencies, whole departments involved," he said.
But the Clinton administration is hesitant to allow agencies to go their own ways on civil service reform.
"The Hill providing selected agencies with a few personnel flexibilities is not effective reform," Office of Personnel Management Director Janice Lachance said in remarks delivered to the Greater Cincinnati Federal Executive Board Wednesday. OPM, she said, would prefer government-wide personnel reform.
In addition to increasing the number of demonstration projects, Nesterczuk said the bill will reopen discussion of expanding the demonstration authority to include employee benefits.
The committee's bill will propose lifting caps on TSP contributions for all employees. Currently, employees enrolled in the Federal Employees Retirement System can only contribute 10 percent of their salary into their retirement accounts. The contributions of those in the Civil Service Retirement System are capped at 5 percent of salary.
The bill would establish a "lock box" for retirement contributions, prohibiting Congress from using the money for any purpose other than issuing payments to employees who retire or leave federal service.
The bill will also offer employees enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program an opportunity to use medical savings accounts, Nesterczuk said. These accounts allow employees to purchase a low-cost health insurance plan to cover large health costs and place the remainder of their premiums in a savings account to be used for medical expenses or taken home at the end of the year.
Finally, the committee will include measures to streamline the employee grievance process, including a proposal to merge the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Lachance said that OPM will offer its services to Congress to "modify and improve any suggestions to the fullest extent possible."
"But be assured," she added, "OPM is working on its own initiatives to create the civil service of the future."
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