Several Bills Advance

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has approved several bills including: S-3013, which would phase out “nonforeign area” cost of living adjustments primarily received by employees in Alaska and Hawaii that are non-taxable but that don’t count toward retirement benefits and replace them with locality pay, which is taxable but does count toward retirement; HR-5683, which would require minimum payouts in GAO’s pay for performance system and reimburse employees under it who were denied raises in 2006 and 2007; S-2148, which would require OPM to establish an office responsible for promoting diversity in the SES; and S-1924, which would create a presumption that a disability or death of a federal employee in fire protection activities caused by certain diseases was work-related.