A $130 million lift

More than 180,000 federal employees-about 10 percent of the government's workforce-are cashing in on Uncle Sam's offer to cover commuting costs. The transit benefit program is putting up to $1,200 extra in employees' pockets this year, since agencies can cover up to $100 per month of their employees' commuting costs if they take public transportation to work. According to Transportation Department projections, federal employees will save a combined total of about $130 million in fiscal 2002. For an employee who makes $55,000 a year, a $100 monthly transit benefit is equal to a 2.2 percent annual bonus. The transit benefit is even better than a bonus or a salary increase, though, since the benefit is not considered wages for the purposes of Social Security, federal withholding or federal unemployment insurance. Since the benefit isn't taxed, employees can get up to $1,200 in extra spending money or savings by letting the government pay for their transportation to and from work. Some federal agencies have provided transit benefits to their employees for years, but President Clinton established a governmentwide transit benefit program in April 2000. Clinton instructed federal agencies to provide up to $65 a month in transit benefits to employees in the Washington area. He ordered the Transportation Department, Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency to provide the monthly benefit to all of their employees nationwide. Clinton gave other agencies the discretion to decide whether to offer the benefit to employees outside the Washington area. The maximum monthly benefit rose to $100 a month in January 2002 under the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. Many agencies, including the Defense and Education departments, offer the full benefit to employees. The Patent and Trademark Office agreed to increase the benefit from $65 to $100 in May. The Labor Department provides the full benefit to its field employees, but only $65 a month to headquarters employees. American Federation of Government Employees Local 12 is putting pressure on management at the Labor Department to boost the benefit. So far, the management there isn't budging. Nonetheless, thanks to Clinton's order, participation in the transit benefit program has soared. In fiscal 2000, 27,000 federal employees took part in the program through the Transportation Administrative Services Center, the Transportation Department office that runs the subsidy program for many agencies. This year, 180,000 federal employees are participating. The value of the benefit to federal workers has risen from $10.3 million total in 2000 to a projected $128 million in 2002. Those numbers are a lowball estimate, since several major agencies-Health and Human Services, Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency-don't go through the Transportation center for their Washington area transit benefit program. At the EPA, for example, 4,600 of the agency's 6,100 headquarters employees-75 percent of the workforce-participate in the transit benefit program at a total cost of $5 million. In addition, some agencies don't go through the center for transit subsidies outside the Washington area. The transit benefit program covers employees' actual commuting expenses on buses, subways, trains, other mass transit systems and vanpools, up to $100. Federal recruiters are using the transit benefit program as a tool to draw prospective employees to the government. Here is a breakdown of participants and costs for major federal agencies that participate in the program through the Transportation Administrative Services Center: