The action follows recent announcements of employee internal suggestion awards programs at OPM and Treasury. Image: Mikhalis Makarov/Shutterstock.com
Legislation (S-2732) has been reintroduced in the Senate to broaden the authority for federal employees to receive awards for savings suggestions
Current law allows an agency’s IG to pay bonuses of up to $10,000 of savings realized when a federal employee identifies waste, fraud, or mismanagement of funds; the legislation would expand the categories to include identifying surplus or unneeded funds, sponsors said in a statement.
The bill meanwhile would direct 90 percent of the savings toward deficit reduction, with agencies free to apply any remainder toward other agency priorities.
Main sponsor Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, had attempted to add similar language to the recently enacted tax and spending law but it was ultimately dropped.
The introduction follows recent announcements of employee suggestion awards programs by OPM and the Treasury Department for their own employees.
Paul also reintroduced S-2733, to require a GAO review of measures that clear congressional committees, but before they reach a floor vote, to determine if there is a risk of “duplicating or overlapping with an existing program, office, or initiative previously identified in a GAO duplication, fragmentation, and overlap report.”
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