Two Raises

Senior executives can breath a sigh of relief now that Office of Personnel Management Director Kay Coles James has issued a memorandum that allows agency heads to reward members of the Senior Executive Service with raises this month, as well as another possible increase later this year when the SES converts to a new pay system. When that conversion occurs, the SES pay cap will increase to $154,000.

Last week, Bill Bransford, counsel to the Senior Executives Association, told Government Executive that SESers were worried that a pay raise this month might prevent them from getting another one later this year when the new pay system is officially put in place. OPM and the Office of Management and Budget are working on regulations that will allow agencies to implement the system.

Agencies typically limit raises to once a year to prevent employees from receiving more than one promotion each year. Annual pay raises are exempted from that rule, but the new pay system allows increases to SES salaries at the agencies' discretion. Therefore, Bransford worried that a pay raise this month would trigger the one-raise-per-year rule.

"Because of the extraordinary circumstances of this situation, in that we are implementing a new performance-based pay system for SES members within an extremely short time frame, I am delegating responsibility to the heads of executive departments and agencies to approve limited exceptions to the 12-month rule," James wrote in the Jan. 20 memo.

The exemption expires after the transition to the new pay system is completed. Agency heads must document each exception to the 12-month rule that is approved.

Buyouts All Around

The Defense Department, which announced last week that it would offer up to 25,000 buyouts and early retirements in 2004, isn't the only agency willing to pay employees to leave. About 20 agencies have submitted requests to the Office of Personnel Management for buyout authority since June 2003, according to Marta Brito Perez, associate director for human capital leadership and merit system accountability at OPM.

The total number of buyouts and early retirements approved is about 48,000, with the U.S. Postal Service separately offering as many as 50,000 on its own.

The buyout and early retirement payouts will be capped at $25,000 and will not be available to all employees. Each agency submitted plans to OPM explaining how the buyouts and early retirements will fit into their broader personnel management strategy. Some of the approved plans call for buyouts and early retirements only within specific agencies or subunits, or among particular classes of workers, Perez said. All of the plans approved by OPM, she added, are aimed at "making agencies more responsive and results-oriented."

The agencies that have received approval to move forward are: the Agency for International Development; the Broadcasting Board of Governors; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the Office of Management and Budget; the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation; the Postal Service; the Smithsonian Institution; the Social Security Administration; and the Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice, and Treasury departments.

New Public Service Caucus

Sens. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Danny Davis, D-Ill., and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., have formed a new bipartisan congressional caucus dedicated to educating fellow lawmakers about the personnel management and recruitment problems facing the federal government.

The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group started by businessman Samuel Heyman to encourage young people to enter the civil service, is sponsoring a kick-off dinner for the new caucus next Tuesday at the Capitol.