Unless serving under a political appointment, federal employees will largely not see pay freezes in FY18 under the omnibus appropriations bill that passed the House March 22, 2018.
The bill does eliminate automatic statutory pay increases for the vice president, political appointees paid under the executive schedule, ambassadors who are not career members of the Foreign Service, politically appointed Senior Executive Service employees, and any other senior political appointee paid at or above level four of the executive schedule, which is a continuation of the pay freeze placed on these employees at 2013 levels.
Certain prevailing rate employees — those individuals employed in a “recognized trade or craft” under U.S. Code — also receive a pay freeze under the appropriations bill.
The bill also provides for several mandatory appropriations accounts, including Federal Employee Health Benefits and Life Insurance and the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund.
The Office of Personnel Management will need to address its backlog in retirement claims under the bill, an issue raised by the agency’s new director, Jeff Pon, in his confirmation hearing, and provide monthly reports to Congress on its progress.
Pon has pointed to improved technology and data management as an avenue for better processing both retirement and benefits claims.
The agency may also have an impact on overall federal technology investments, as the bill would give OPM $584,000 to strengthen the federal acquisition workforce, particularly in training and hiring for IT-focused acquisitions.
However, the bill also makes inroads on union restrictions as it takes verbatim a piece of Trump’s FY19 budget proposal that would limit federal employee time used for union duties, which states:
“Unless authorized in accordance with law or regulations to use such time for other purposes, an employee of an agency shall use official time in an honest effort to perform official duties. An employee not under a leave system, including a Presidential appointee exempted under 5 U.S.C. 6301(2), has an obligation to expend an honest effort and a reasonable proportion of such employee’s time in the performance of official duties.”
Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.
