OPM-Related Issues Described

The accompanying report to the catchall spending bill outlines several areas of concern that Congress has with OPM’s performance, effectively signaling issues ahead for the new agency leadership. The report cites the pending retirement exodus and encourages OPM to improve the government’s recruiting efforts, in particular among Hispanics and the disabled, and to better communicate with employees about their benefits. It also encourages OPM to "consider taking steps to extend health care benefits to federal employees’ domestic partners." It also says that OPM should give top priority to completing the RetireEZ project designed to improve retirement record keeping and processing, which has been partly stalled since last year due to problems with the benefits calculation function. OPM was urged not to "set an unworkable timetable as a goal to the detriment of system accuracy and performance," likely a response to warnings issued by GAO about the program before its launch last year that OPM downplayed but that proved to be prescient. The White House has formally nominated John Berry, a former senior House aide and Clinton administration official who is now director of the National Zoo, as OPM director.