Fedweek

In the latest of numerous steps to limit monetary awards to federal employees, the House has added language to a spending bill covering VA barring the payment of bonuses to SES members agency-wide, following revelations regarding waiting times at hospitals. Similar proposals were raised in the past in reaction to wasteful conference spending, the backlog of veterans’ disability claims and other patient care issues. VA has opposed the language, saying it needs to be able to pay competitive compensation; opponents of the ban also point out that a recent House committee report actually praised how VA manages executive awards, noting that the department temporarily stopped paying them in the benefits administration branch due to the claims backlog. Meanwhile, a House counterpart (HR-4531) has been offered to an earlier introduced Senate bill to bar payments of bonuses and other types of awards to IRS employees who are subject to discipline for misconduct or who owe personal back taxes, following a recent audit showing that the agency had been paying awards to such employees. The moves come as the Senior Executives Association released results of a member survey showing that limits agencies already have imposed on executive awards due to funding restrictions have undercut the pay for performance nature of the SES and have many execs thinking of retiring or taking private sector jobs.