Military Pay Raise, Federal Hiring, VA Firing and More

Military personnel would receive a 2.1 percent pay raise next year under a major House bill that lawmakers have advanced.

The House Armed Services Committee approved last Thursday the massive fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes the salary boost. The 2.1 percent bump is 0.5 percentage points higher than the 1.6 percent raise President Obama recommended for the military and civilians in his fiscal 2017 budget.

The 2.1 percent figure is in line with the anticipated 2017 cost-of-living adjustment. (The formula for determining service members’ annual pay increase is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index and the growth in private-sector wages.) The Senate Armed Services Committee, however, is likely to stick with the administration’s proposal, which is what has happened in the recent past.

A 1.6 percent pay raise could save the Defense Department more than $300 million in fiscal 2017, officials have said.

The fiscal 2017 Defense authorization bill also would create a new TRICARE enrollment fee for active-duty service members who join the military after Jan. 1, 2018 (active-duty personnel currently don’t pay TRICARE enrollment fees). However, the House committee rejected an administration proposal requiring new TRICARE-for-Life beneficiaries to pay an annual enrollment fee. Those currently enrolled in that plan don’t pay annual enrollment fees, but do pay Medicare Part B monthly premiums.

The House panel also included an amendment to the authorization bill that would repeal cuts to per diems for service members and Defense civilian employees on long-term government travel. Those cuts, which the Pentagon implemented on Nov. 1, 2014, reduced the reimbursement rates by 25 percent for long-term TDY of 31 to 180 days, and by 45 percent for travel exceeding 180 days.

In other Defense news, some service members are feeling more optimistic about their job security, according to new survey results just released by First Command Financial Behaviors Index. Forty-three percent of middle-class military families expressed concern about their jobs in March, compared to 59 percent in September 2015.

“This recent drop in job security concerns may be driven in part by news reports about members of Congress calling for the Army to add personnel, reversing the cuts of recent years,” said Scott Spiker, CEO of First Command Financial Services Inc. “While the down tick is welcome news, it may not last as critics of the proposal have already noted that lawmakers have yet to permanently resolve the deep across-the-board cuts to defense and other federal spending called sequestration.”

The survey asked respondents how they are dealing with sequestration, with 49 percent saying they are saving more and 42 percent reporting they are cutting back in daily spending.

From military families to veterans, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee late last week introduced a bipartisan omnibus package that would affect the hiring, firing and pay of some VA employees. The nearly 400-page omnibus bill, known as the Veterans First Act, would move senior health care executives into Title 38, allowing the VA secretary more flexibility in setting pay and disciplining those accused of poor performance or misconduct. The legislation also would expedite firing for all department employees by reducing the amount of time an employee has to respond to a proposed removal. Some critics of the bill have called the accountability measures for rank-and-file employees weak. A draft of the VA omnibus included tougher accountability provisions for poor performers and wrongdoers among the workforce, but some were softened in the final version.

Other parts of the package would enhance education and health care benefits and services for veterans and their families, including expanding the post-9/11 GI Bill to mobilized reservists and making it easier for survivors of vets to get benefits without filing a formal claim.

Meanwhile, the much-maligned federal hiring process is getting renewed attention from the Office of Personnel Management. The agency has embarked on a “Hiring Excellence” campaign, and is traveling across the country to work with agency supervisors to teach them how to hire more efficiently and effectively. 

As Eric Katz reports:

Hiring Excellence will focus on collaboration between hiring managers and HR staff, raising awareness of hiring authorities, increasing the “range of assessments” agencies can use to expedite hiring, mining USAJOBS -- the federal hiring website -- for data to inform outreach and recruitment and improving applicants’ experience with the site.

OPM has held day-long training sessions for more than 300 participants. The agency plans to host events in 33 cities this year and into fiscal 2017. The training will evolve based on feedback from the already completed sessions.