The Defense Department will be able to offer employees buyouts of up to $25,000 until September 2003, under an agreement reached by House and Senate conferees last week on the Defense authorization bill.
The agreement would extend the Pentagon's authority to offer buyouts by two years; the authority is currently set to expire on Sept. 30, 2001.
The fiscal 2000 Defense authorization bill would also eliminate the ceiling on pay for retired military officers who work as civilians for the federal government. The current ceiling is $110,700. About 6,000 military retirees are affected by the ceiling and lose an average of $800 per month in benefits, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The Senate-House agreement paves the way for passage of the bill when Congress returns from its August recess next month. However, the Clinton administration is considering vetoing the bill over a provision reorganizing the Energy Department.
Additional provisions included in the $288 billion authorization bill include:
- Extending the expiration date for the authority to pay severance pay in a lump sum from Oct. 1, 1999 to Oct. 1, 2003.
- Improved dental insurance coverage for military retirees.
- Easing cost accounting standards for federal contracts.
- Providing a 4.8 percent pay raise for military personnel in 2000, followed by annual pay raises thereafter set at one-half percent above the annual increases in the Employment Cost Index. Pay raises are currently set at 0.5 percent below those increases.
- Permanently requiring quadrennial defense reviews.
- Requiring that DoD provide a minimum of two uniformed military personnel for the funerals of honorably discharged veterans.
- Requiring a study comparing military health care benefits with civilian health care benefits.
- Cutting headquarters management positions by 15 percent over three years beginning in fiscal year 2000.
- Reducing the defense acquisition workforce by at least 14,000 personnel in fiscal year 2000.
- A reduction in funding for declassification efforts at the Defense Department from $200 million a year to $51 million in 2000.
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