Federal Manager's Daily Report

The OPM memo said that OMB “fully supports” apportioning the costs to agencies that in essence were the victims of the breach, leaving little prospect of agencies being able to successfully appeal to that agency for relief.

“We understand some of you have Congressional notification requirements (e.g., reprogramming requests) related to the funding transfer. Please notify your respective OMB examiner if you determine your agency needs to send a Congressional notification,” it added.

In addition, OPM announced that it is increasing the fees it charges to agencies to process security clearances, retroactive to the start of the current fiscal year, because it had burned through its “retained earnings” following cancellation of the contract with what had been the main contractor performing those investigations.

The new process for conducting background checks turned out to be more costly than expected and agencies will have to absorb that unexpected cost out of current year funds as well, along with paying more in the future.

Said the memo, “We understand and appreciate the complexities of this late in FY15 request for funds. We cannot stress enough the importance and significance of this funding. This funding is critical to ensure that OPM is able to maintain its operational capability in order to allow agencies to continue to fill critical positions and accomplish their missions.”