Independence day

On Monday, the General Accounting Office sent a proposal to Capitol Hill that would loosen its Title 5 restrictions and change its name to the Government Accountability Office.

The draft legislation, slated to be introduced in the next few days, would give GAO permanent authority to offer early retirement and buyout incentives to employees. Congress temporarily granted GAO those authorities three years ago, but they expire on Dec. 31, and Comptroller General David Walker wants to make them permanent. GAO is an independent agency in the legislative branch that examines management in executive agencies.

GAO would get a pay-for-performance plan under the proposal, which would help the agency "maintain a competitive advantage in attracting, motivating, retaining, and rewarding a high performing and quality workforce," according to in-house GAO documents. The agency would also be able to develop its own locality pay rate. Currently, federal workers in 31 metropolitan areas, ranging from Atlanta and Washington to Huntsville, Ala., receive special locality pay, based on the cost of labor in each city. Employees who are rated less than satisfactory will forego their automatic annual pay increase under GAO's proposal. GAO's legislative proposal asks for a two-year transition period to gauge how best to set up and implement a pay-for-performance system.

The push for personnel flexibilities at the watchdog agency comes amid intense discussion among congressional leaders, "good government" advocates and Bush administration officials about reforming the civil service system across federal government. Last fall when Congress passed the law creating the Homeland Security Department, it gave HSD's leaders broad authority to tailor the agency's own personnel system for the 170,000 employees it absorbed.

The Defense Department wants a new personnel system for its nearly 800,000 civilian employees and House legislators included the measure in the fiscal 2004 Defense authorization bill. Senate lawmakers introduced it in separate legislation. NASA has spent two years trying to get some personnel management freedoms and recently got union support for their efforts.

Domestic Partners

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., recently joined Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Mark Dayton, D-Minn., to introduce the "Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2003," (H.R.2426) which would give federal employees' domestic partners of the same or opposite sex access to health and life insurance and retirement benefits.

"It's time for the federal government to follow the lead of 11 state governments, over 150 local governments, and more than five thousand private sector employers and recognize that providing benefits to domestic partners is not just the fair thing to do, it's good business," Frank said when the bill was introduced on June 24. "Corporations are not required to do this in most places; they do it because it helps attract high-quality employees."

Frank and Dayton filed similar legislation in the last Congress, but it did not make it out of committee.

"When gay men and lesbians who work for the federal government choose a life partner, those relationships should be treated with respect," said Lieberman, who is ranking member on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. "It's time to lead with a new vision of a more tolerant nation and take concrete steps toward equality in the workplace."