GAO Reforms Signed into Law

President Bush has signed (PL 108-271) a measure setting in law a pay-for-performance system for the General Accounting Office-which is to be renamed the Government Accountability Office-and granting GAO permanent buyout authority. Although GAO is an arm of Congress, it operates under many of the same rules as executive branch agencies and has been experimenting in recent years with various alternative hiring, pay, promotion and other practices. Its personnel policies are seen on Capitol Hill as a test of similar ideas for the executive branch; GAO, which is influential on such issues, often cites its own systems as models to follow. The legislation would switch GAO to a complete pay-for-performance system, with employees no longer guaranteed the annual government-wide raise.