Annuitant Rehiring Policies Examined

The House federal workforce subcommittee has held a hearing examining ways the government could rehire more federal retirees, a potential supply of experienced workers that some experts believe should be tapped as the government faces an exodus of employees in the upcoming years. While various agencies, including DoD and the intelligence agencies, have been given special permission to rehire without an offset between salaries and annuities, DoD uses it in less than 1 percent of its hiring actions, and the intelligence community only recently put out policy guidance on how it will use authority it gained in 2004. Meanwhile, OPM published in the July 21 Federal Register a proposal that would broaden the circumstances in which it, or employing agencies, may grant waivers of the offset requirement. In addition to the authority for emergency situations that currently exists, the regs would allow rehiring without an offset in “unusual circumstances,” such as the need to conform to a congressional or other mandate to meet new or expanded mission requirements by a particular date, as well as other unforeseen developments.