FederalDaily.com > New Conflict-of-Interest Rules for SES

FederalDaily - April 10, 2006

New Conflict-of-Interest Rules for SES

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in the March 16 issue of the Federal Register announced final regulations requiring agencies to notify members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and other employees in senior positions of certain post-employment conflict-of-interest restrictions. Agencies must provide written notification to affected employees of the new salary-based threshold for determining the applicability of the post-employment conflict-of-interest restrictions. The final regulations are effective on April 17, 2006. Under the law, most SES members—and other individuals who are paid at a rate of basic pay equal to or greater than 86.5 percent of the rate of level II of the Executive Schedule—are subject to the post-employment restrictions.

Pregnancy Program for Military Women

Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, and five other congressmen on April 4 sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense requesting $1 million in funding in the fiscal year 2007 Department of Defense appropriations bill for the Pregnancy Recovery Education Program initiative. This initiative would be developed to assist military women and spouses with the physical recovery and potential serious illnesses they may encounter in the first year after giving birth. Educational materials would be provided to assist new mothers who are focusing on caring for their new child; materials would also cover mothers managing their own health and physical recovery. These women could be facing the extra challenges of continuing their military careers and/or living apart from spouses who are deployed, the letter said.

Improving Military Overseas Voting

An amendment attached to the Department of Defense (DoD) supplemental appropriations bill would simplify the absentee ballot process for overseas troops and reduce the number of disenfranchised military voters, according to the amendment’s author, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. Burns pointed to a study by the National Defense Committee, which found that the current system for handling absentee ballots for overseas troops caused voting problems. This process, which involves sending ballots through the mail, prevents a large number of overseas servicemembers from having their votes counted in time, Burns said. The new amendment would set aside $5.82 million to create the Interim Voting Assistance System (IVAS). Local governments, via IVAS, would be able to upload military absentee ballots to a secure DoD server. The soldiers could then download, fill out and mail the forms back.

Coalition for Improved Government Management

Five federal management associations have joined to form a coalition to advocate solutions that could improve the federal work force, according to a March 3 press release from the newly-formed group. The Government Managers Coalition (GMC)—made up of the Federal Aviation Administration Managers Association, the Federal Managers Association, the National Council of Social Security Management Associations, the Professional Managers Association and the Senior Executives Association (SEA)—represents a combined 200,000 federal managers. GMC’s agenda includes:

compensation for workers not abusing FERS sick leave;

mandatory training for supervisors;

clear guidelines for handling supervisors charged with Equal Employment Opportunity complaints; and

extended probationary periods for new employees.

HUD Investigates Cheating Feds

Federal government employees who are defrauding federal housing assistance programs are coming under increased scrutiny from a new program called Operation FedRent. The program was announced last week by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The initiative is supposed to expose and prosecute federal government employees who misrepresent their incomes to obtain rental subsidies. HUD will use computer-matching techniques to see whether federal employees receiving rental assistance are under-reporting their income. HUD said reported income will be compared with employment information maintained by other federal agencies on all federal employees and retirees. “Federal employees who earn enough income to rent their own apartment or home but conceal their worth to qualify for rental assistance are taking homes away from those families who truly need them,” said HUD Inspector General Kenneth M. Donohue.