NASA, GAO Flexibilities Advance

President Bush has signed into law (PL 108-201) a measure to allow NASA to pay higher salaries and bonuses to scientists and engineers as a recruiting and retention tool. It also authorizes a program in which NASA could provide scholarships to college students in certain courses of study in exchange for a two-year employment commitment after graduation. Meanwhile, the House has passed a bill (HR-2751) that would set in law a pay-for-performance system for the General Accounting Office-which would be renamed the Government Accountability Office-and grant GAO permanent buyout authority. The Senate passed a counterpart bill (S-1522) last year.