Pay Day

The roster of new federal pay and benefits decision-makers is lining up in the executive and legislative branches.

The current leaders in the administration and Congress who will craft policies affecting the federal workforce are strong defenders of traditional employee benefits, as might be expected from a Democratic-controlled government. They have fought to preserve cost-of-living pay increases, opposed what they deemed to be unfair pay-for-performance systems, and worked to keep federal workers' health care costs low.

Tania Shand, the new director of congressional relations at the Office of Personnel Management, will have a pivotal role as the liaison between the administration and Capitol Hill on federal employees' pay and benefits. Shand is currently the staff director of the House Oversight and Government Reform Federal Workforce Subcommittee. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., her boss, credited her with helping to pass legislation last year that ensured employees at the Government Accountability Office earning at least a satisfactory rating under the agency's pay-for-performance system would receive cost-of-living raises comparable to those under the General Schedule.

Jonathan Tumin, a senior GAO analyst, also praised Shand for having "a tremendous positive impact on the lives and morale of hundreds of GAO employees."

In addition, Shand helped lead the congressional response last winter to the decision by Blue Cross Blue Shield to institute a new policy that would have required enrollees to pay a deductible of up to $7,500 for surgeries performed by out-of-network physicians. Blue Cross, the largest provider of health plans to federal employees, eventually renegotiated that provision of its Standard Option plan under pressure from Congress and Shand's subcommittee.

Lynch, the federal workforce subcommittee's new chairman, also has touted his federal pay and benefit credentials since assuming a leadership role. In a March 4 speech to the National Treasury Employees Union, he outlined a broad agenda for federal employees' pay and benefits, including support for a higher pay raise, collective bargaining rights, whistleblower protections, and paid parental leave. On March 25, Lynch moved legislation out of his subcommittee to grant federal employees four weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child. It was the first bill he addressed and shepherded as chairman. He also has introduced legislation that would change the way federal retirement benefits are calculated and a bill to automatically enroll new federal employees in the Thrift Savings Plan.

Before Lynch took over the subcommittee, he co-sponsored legislation to restore the executive labor-management partnership councils that President Clinton established and President Bush repealed, as well as a bill to increase the diversity of the Senior Executive Service.

He also has long personal experience with federal employee policies -- 17 members of his family work for the government, mostly for the U.S. Postal Service, and "they are not shy about letting me know what's wrong with what they see in the workplace," he said during his NTEU speech.

Even though Lynch is losing his staff director to OPM, Shand couldn't be moving to a better place to work with him on his pay and benefits agenda. Also joining OPM, as general counsel, is Elaine Kaplan, the former special counsel during the Clinton and Bush administrations, and current senior deputy general counsel for the National Treasury Employees Union.

Much of Kaplan's legal experience has been on employee rights issues, including case work on drug testing and speaking fees. At NTEU, Kaplan has been involved in challenges to the controversial National Security Personnel System and the pay-for-performance system at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

On Thursday, Obama's choice for OPM chief heads to Capitol Hill for his first confirmation hearing. John Berry's Senate appearances no doubt will provide an opportunity to see where he stands on a wide range of personnel policies and challenges facing the federal human capital community.