The Senate has joined the House in passing a bill responding to understaffing and the resulting surge in required overtime at the Secret Service (HR-3731) although a report on the measure calls it only a “stop-gap” in the face of a larger problem.
The bill extends through this year a special authority enacted previously to waive the standard limits on overtime pay at the Secret Service, while specifying that the amounts above the limits will not count toward employees’ retirement benefits.
The report on the bill says the agency has made progress in improving recruitment and retention since the special authority first was enacted in 2016, decreasing its attrition rate and reducing its average time to hire from 406 days to 117. However, even with a gain in staffing of about 500 to about 6,800 in that time, “Secret Service personnel have been required to work excessive overtime to fully staff the agency’s protective mission.”
The measure requires the Secret Service to report on potential further improvements to recruitment and retention as well as to provide an assessment of the scope of its mission, saying “the Secret Service cannot continue to rely on expensive premium overtime pay to meet its mission.”
The report adds that the bill “is tailored for the unique circumstances the agency faces” and should not be regarded “as precedent for waiving pay caps for any other agency.”
