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By: FEDweek StaffThe Biden administration has chosen 230 winners from 37 agencies for the Presidential Rank Awards, the top honors for career employees in the SES and equivalent levels, in restarting a program canceled last year due to the pandemic.
The employees chosen for the awards—through what this year was a fully virtual nomination and consideration process—were involved in initiatives including improving physical and IT infrastructure, the TSAPreCheck passenger screening system and health insurance program integrity, OPM said.
There are two categories of awards, distinguished and meritorious, with one grouping for SES members and another for senior level/senior scientific or technical employees, commonly called senior professionals; among the 2021 awardees, all but 24 were in the former group. The “distinguished” award, worth 35 percent of base pay, can be granted to no more than 1 percent of an agency’s employees in such positions and the “meritorious” award, worth 20 percent of base pay, to no more than 5 percent.
In 2020, OPM had initially solicited nominations early in the year as normal but months later canceled the program for the year. That was the only interruption of the program for many years except that in 2013 the Obama administration made that year’s awards cashless amid the “sequestration” budget limits. The cash component was restored in the next year.
The list of 2021 winners is here: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/presidential-rank-awards/2021/presidential-rank-awards-2021.pdf
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