Layoff and Liability Aid Looking Good

EXECUTIVE MEMO

Layoff and Liability Aid Looking Good

efore Congress' August recess, the appropriations bill covering most civil service issues had been passed by the House and was on its way to the floor in the Senate. Provisions appearing in both the House-passed measure and the Senate committee bill appeared to have a good chance of surviving the House-Senate conference and making it into law. Here are key areas of agreement:

n Employees facing layoffs could add accumulated annual leave to their service years to qualify for annuities. The Senate committee would count leftover leave toward qualifying for health coverage in retirement, as well. Employees must have five years' service credit to carry over insurance.

• Agencies could pay a portion of the cost of professional liability insurance for managers.
• Employees would be permitted to represent professional groups and other employee organizations before their agencies. The provision would overturn a 1994 Justice Department opinion.
• Buyouts would be available to people facing layoffs at the IRS, Customs Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The House would limit buyouts to people who are not eligible to retire; the Senate Committee would offer them to retirement-eligible employees, too.
• Private sector debt collectors could get another shot at IRS work under a second privatization program. Last year Congress directed IRS to contract for collection of delinquent taxes and five contracts were let in June. The second effort would be directed at collecting tax debt IRS classifies as not collectible.
• The Office of Personnel Management must explain why it released to unions the home addresses of OPM employees covered by labor contracts. A provision in OPM's 1996 appropriation required Congressional notification before employee addresses are released.
• Sunday premium pay would no longer go to employees who take leave on a Sunday they were scheduled to work.
• Agencies would be barred from using any of their appropriated funds to stir up support for or opposition to measures pending in Congress. Bill language would ban spending for any "kit, pamphlet, booklet, publication, radio, television or film presentation." Criminal law already prevents agencies rom funding large grass-roots lobbying campaigns.