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Published: 2004

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A bill related to the management of the federal workforce is being considered by the 108th Congress. S. 129, the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2003, passed the Senate with an amendment by unanimous consent on April 8, 2004. In the House, the Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization forwarded S. 129 to the House Committee on Government Reform on May 18, 2004, after amending it by voice vote. On June 24, 2004, the House committee ordered the bill to be reported to the House of Representatives, after amending it, by voice vote. The bill was introduced by Senator George Voinovich on January 9, 2003. A similar bill, H.R. 1601, the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2003, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Jo Ann Davis on April 3, 2003. S. 129, as passed by the Senate and as ordered to be reported to the House, would amend current law provisions on critical pay, civil service retirement system computation for part-time service, agency training, and annual leave. The bill also would amend current law provisions on recruitment and relocation bonuses and retention allowances (which would be renamed bonuses). As ordered to be reported to the House, S. 129 would amend the current 5 U.S.C. §§5753 and 5754 language on such bonuses and allowances. As passed by the Senate, it would add new sections 5754a and 5754b on recruitment, relocation, and retention bonuses to Title 5 United States Code. Therefore, if S. 129, as passed by the Senate, were enacted, agencies would be able to use the current law provisions on recruitment and relocation bonuses and retention allowances at 5 U.S.C. §§5753 and 5754 and the enhanced authority for recruitment, relocation, and retention bonuses proposed at 5 U.S.C. §§5754a and 5754b. S. 129, as ordered to be reported to the House, would amend current law provisions on pay administration. These amendments were included in S. 129, as introduced, but they were dropped during Senate committee markup and are not included in the Senate-passed version of the bill. Provisions that would amend current law on retirement service credit for cadet or midshipman service and compensatory time off for travel were added to S. 129 during Senate committee markup and are included in the legislation as passed by the Senate and as ordered to be reported to the House. Added during Senate Committee markup as well were provisions on Senior Executive Service authority for the White House Office of Administration that are in the Senate-passed bill, but are not in the legislation as ordered to be reported to the House. Other provisions that would have amended current law provisions relating to contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan, annuity commencement dates, and retirement for air traffic controllers were included in S. 129, as forwarded by the House Civil Service and Agency Organization Subcommittee to the House Government Reform Committee, but were removed during the full committee markup. This report compares each of the provisions in S. 129, as passed by the Senate and as ordered to be reported to the House, with current law.