Many Requests on the Table

Last year’s version of the DoD authorization bill was the vehicle for allowing DoD to create a new civilian personnel system for itself, and while this year’s changes are not expected to be as sweeping, DoD has requested language that would: revise the priority placement program for employees displaced by downsizing; provide employment preference to spouses of DoD employees who have been reassigned under mandatory mobility programs; allow the DoD intelligence agencies to set their senior executive pay rates at levels comparable to those now applying to federal senior executives in general; extend from 18 to 24 months the period that an employing agency may pay both the employee and agency share of Federal Employees Health Benefits program premiums for reservists who are called to active duty in support of a contingency operation; have annuities under the FERS system begin the day after retirement, rather than the following month; amend CSRS retirement law to remove a provision that acts as a disincentive to switching to part-time work later in a career; and allow agencies to provide better leave benefits for those hired into the government in mid-career.