The Office of Personnel Management on Feb. 4 issued in the Federal Register rules to carry out the new government-wide buyout authority contained in last year’s law creating the Department of Homeland Security. A separate set of rules is expected to implement a separate provision of that law establishing government-wide early retirement authority. However, contrary to what many employees seem to have come to believe, the early out and buyout authorities would not create opportunities for anyone interested to apply; instead, offers of either type would be subject to several limitations. For a breakdown of how these programs would work, go to https://www.fedweek.com/HotFreeNews/default.asp in the hot free info section of our website.