Pay Cap, FEHB Bills Advance

The House civil service subcommittee has approved HR-3751, a bill to require the Office of Personnel Management to produce a report on possible ways to expand vision, glaucoma, dental and hearing benefits in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program. The panel also cleared HR-3737, which would increase pay caps for administrative law judges, contract appeal board members and senior scientific and professional employees to make the limits comparable to the rates for federal senior executive service members authorized by legislation enacted last year, rising from executive schedule III to executive schedule level II (at current rates, from $145,600 to $158,100). The Bush administration has taken no position on the former bill but opposes the latter-which originally applied only to ALJs but was amended to include other high-level pay systems–on grounds that the higher SES rates were linked to performance measures that are not allowable for ALJs.