Senate Panel Advances Several Bills

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has approved S-1691, a bill to overhaul “administratively uncontrollable overtime” at the Border Patrol, a bill widely seen as precedent for making similar changes in other agencies. AUO is a form of overtime to law enforcement positions that require substantial amounts of irregular or occasional overtime work, with the employee generally being personally responsible for judging whether it’s necessary to remain on duty. However, there have been numerous reports of abuse of the payments, which can be worth up to 25 percent of salary. Even the AFGE union, which represents many agents, supports the proposal, which would create a three-tiered system of hours with the individual annually choosing a preferred number of hours and a revised entitlement to overtime or compensatory time off. The panel also approved yet another directive to limit agency conference spending, S-1347, which would reduce available funds to 80 percent of 2010 levels, require detailed reports on conferences to be posted on each agency’s site quarterly, and impose new restrictions on attending international conferences. It further approved S-2117, which would change the default TSP investment for newly hired employees who do not specify an investment fund, from the government securities G fund to the lifecycle L fund most appropriate for their age. That would apply only to those hired after enactment.