Personnel Provisions Survive the Defense Authorization Conference

The repeal of the authority behind the National Security Personnel System is the biggest surprise in the Conference Report on the Defense Authorization bill, but a wide range of other government-wide personnel provisions, mostly relating to retirement, but including a transition from the COLA in Alaska and Hawaii to the locality pay system, survived the conference. They are as follows:

• Allows former federal employees who receive a federal annuity from other than the Civil

Retirement and Disability Fund to retain their annuity if reemployed by DOD.

• Authorizes federal agencies to reemploy retired federal employees under certain limited conditions, without offset of an employees' annuity against their salary, and requires the Comptroller General to report on the use of this authority.

• Phases out cost of living allowances for federal employees working in Hawaii, Alaska, and other non-foreign U.S. territories, and would phase in locality comparability pay in place of the allowances.

• Phases in the allowance of unused sick leave to be applied toward length of service for

purposes of computing a retirement annuity under the Federal Employee Retirement System.

• Provides certain District of Columbia employees whose positions were converted into federal positions with pension credit for their service prior to the transition for the purpose of determining federal retirement benefits.

• Allows former federal employees under the Federal Employee Retirement System who

withdrew their contributions to the retirement trust fund, thereby waiving retirement credit for those years of service, to redeposit their earlier contributions, plus interest, upon reemployment with the federal government.

• Allows employees under the Civil Service Retirement System to take their highest salary, including their deemed full-time salary for years of part-time work, to be used in computing benefits derived from a pre-1986 salary.

And a full summary of the conference report can be found here.