Justice lawyers en route to comp time for travel

Justice Department lawyers are closer to joining the rest of the white-collar federal workforce in receiving compensatory time off for business travel.

The House Government Reform Committee unanimously passed a bill Thursday to clarify that Justice lawyers will receive comp time for travel.

The bill will "greatly assist those employees that take their flights, travel the country and attend their business away from home, and don't clearly get compensation for their dedication," said Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., one of the sponsors. "It truly is a bill to help clarify…what I believe what was the intent of Congress."

Reps. Porter, Tom Davis, R-Va.; Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; Danny Davis, D-Ill.; and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., introduced the comp time bill (H.R. 4057) to correct the variation in benefits.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia, introduced a companion bill in the Senate earlier this week (S. 1876).

Agencies can award travel comp time when they are otherwise unable to compensate employees for time spent in transit. They are not allowed to give cash payments, but there is no limit on the amount of time they can award.

The rules on travel comp time are complex. For example, time spent eating meals is not eligible. That includes meals at an airport while waiting for a flight. The Office of Personnel Management considers this to be time that employees would have spent eating a meal elsewhere.

In addition, regular commuting time is deducted from travel comp time. If employees travel to the airport from home in the morning, they must deduct the amount of time they normally spend commuting. But if employees travel from work to the airport, then that time is considered compensable.

By law, members of the Senior Executive Service, immigration judges and Federal Wage System employees in the Justice Department will remain ineligible for travel comp time, even if this bill is enacted.