Federal Daily - June 20, 2008

OPM: Agencies Have Flexibilities to Help Feds Hit by Midwest Floods 

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memorandum June 18, reminding federal managers of the multiple human resources flexibilities available to help federal employees hit with personal and property losses in the wake of devastating floods that have struck along the Mississippi River in the Midwest this week. The worst floods in the region in 15 years so far have killed 24 people dead and 148 injured and caused billions of dollars in damage, according to current estimates. The OPM memo reminds agencies, faced with severe weather emergencies, that they can grant salary advances to employees ordered to evacuate for safety reasons; excuse absence with pay; offer travel, subsistence payments and various pay arrangements as well as implement short-term telework for displaced employees. The human resources flexibilities offer agencies with needed tools to “help mitigate the emotional stress of employees impacted by natural disasters, while positioning agencies to continue providing vital government services,” said OPM Director Linda M. Springer. To see more, go to www.opm.gov/news/opm-issues-hr-flexibilities-reminder-to-help-federal-employees-and-agencies-recover-from-midwest-floods,1412.aspx.

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Panel OKs A-76 Freeze, Elimination of IRS Private Debt Collectors

The House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations subcommittee June 17 recommended a halt to the years-long effort by the IRS to implement a private debt collection program—and also called for a one-year moratorium on other federal agency privatization efforts. The controversial IRS program, which pays private collection agencies a bounty for every tax debt dollar they collect, has been slowed by consumer complaints and questions over its viability. Numerous IRS officials have acknowledged since its inception that federal workers can collect back taxes more efficiently than the private debt collectors. The House in April passed a tax bill, H.R. 5719, that would eliminate the debt-collection program, a bill whose counterpart awaits action in the Senate. The subcommittee’s call for a government-wide privatization freeze is designed, according to backer and subcommittee Chairman José E. Serrano, D-N.Y., to give the next administration an “opportunity to consider and implement its own workforce policies.” Serrano called the A-76 competitions a “controversial and detrimental federal workforce program.” The measures were included as language in a Fiscal Year 2009 budget markup approved on a voice vote by the panel. To see more, go to: http://serrano.house.gov/PressRelease.aspx?NewsID=1567.

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Expert Panel to Nominate Exceptional Senior Federal Workers

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has empanelled a blue-ribbon group of judges in Ohio to help pick senior federal workers as candidates for the 2008 Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive and Senior Professional. The Presidential Rank Award is the highest professional honor for career Senior Executive Service (SES) members and senior career employees. The 17-member review panel is composed of distinguished business executives, educators and community leaders. Panelists will review the accomplishments of the nominees—all of whom are career SES and senior level employees who have a sustained record of exceptional professional, technical or scientific achievement. “These panelists will help reward exceptional leadership in the federal government,” said OPM Director Linda M. Springer said in a June 17 statement.  “Through their hard work, we are able to recognize those who truly excel on behalf of the American people.” The panel is the third of four slated to convene at different locations around the country to consider nominees. At the conclusion of the panels, recommendations will be sent to President Bush, who will announce the final award recipients later this year, Springer said. To see more, go to: www.opm.gov/news/opm-convenes-review-board-in-cincinnati-oh-to-consider-nominees-for-presidential-rank-award,1416.aspx. 

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