Fedweek

The Senate could vote at any time on a bill (S-2169) that aims to break a longstanding holdup on policies regarding administrative leave (also called excused absence) for federal employees.

While the bill initially was designed to broaden a special hiring authority for college students and recent graduates, language was added in committee voting to address what sponsors called unintended consequence of a 2016 change in law.

That law specifically created administrative leave in law—it has been a traditional practice even without such authority—and generally limited it to 10 days per year per employee for purposes such as attending agency-sponsored events. That was in response to agencies having put some employees on that paid leave for many months, or even several years, pending possible disciplinary action against them.

The law meanwhile created two new forms of leave, investigative leave and notice leave, for disciplinary situations and set limits on their use. It further created “weather and safety” leave and designated when that could be used for excusing employees from work due to severe weather and other emergencies.

OPM later issued proposed regulations for all those situations, although only the weather and safety leave rules have been finalized because of concerns that have arisen around the 10 day limit on administrative leave; that amount is less than what agencies traditionally have provided for rest and recuperation purposes for employees assigned to combat zones or other hazardous areas overseas.

The bill would provide for 20 days per year of such leave while also authorizing agencies to grant up to five days of leave per year for employees working in foreign countries to observe their holidays. The CBO recently issued a cost estimate on the bill, commonly a step clearing the way for voting by the full House or Senate.

It estimated that of the 50,000 federal employees working abroad, about a quarter would qualify for rest and recuperation leave, mostly State and Defense employees.