Much Work Lies Ahead for OPM Nominee

OPM’s release of the policy regarding legislative branch health care coverage resulted in Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., lifting the hold he had placed on OPM director nominee Katherine Archuleta that prevented her from reaching a full Senate confirmation vote before Congress started its current recess. She now will be installed in mid-September at the earliest — and will face several immediate tasks. These include finalizing policies on phased retirement, whose comment period ended recently, finalizing FEHB premiums and coverage ahead of the open season later in the fall and dealing with the potential fallout on the federal workforce of various budgetary deadlines that will be arriving, including the end of the fiscal year and the federal debt ceiling. At her confirmation hearing she cited addressing the retirement applications backlog as a top priority but since then OPM in effect has given itself another year to reach its goal of wiping out the backlog, citing the cutbacks it imposed on the processing operation due to sequestration.