Pay Raise Surprise, New Tuition Discounts, Snow Day Refresher and More

Last week ended on a high note for federal employees. First, President Obama surprised everyone by increasing next year’s civilian pay raise to 2.1 percent. The civilian pay hike now matches the figure lawmakers approved for the military as part of the Defense authorization bill.

Then, at the last minute Friday Congress passed a continuing resolution that averted a government shutdown over the weekend. The measure funds federal agencies until April 28.

The one less promising item amid this news is that federal employees are unlikely to get extra time off around the Christmas holiday this year. Christmas falls on a Sunday this time around, and federal workers will have Monday, Dec. 26 off as a holiday. The last time Christmas was on a Sunday, in 2011, Obama did not give feds any extra vacation.

Speaking of holidays and winter, the Office of Personnel Management on Wednesday hosted a Facebook live chat to remind federal employees in the Washington area of the procedures for inclement weather.

OPM emphasized that in making decisions about the government’s operating status during winter storms, capital area officials are considering input from a range of state and local partners and that their main concerns are the safety of employees and continuity of operations.

OPM aims to have the government’s operating status posted as early as possible prior to big storms, said Dean Hunter, the agency’s director of facilities, security, and emergency management. But the decision process can be tricky because weather in the D.C. area can vary dramatically by going a few miles north or east, said Chris Strong, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service. While many storms are discussed days in advance, there are some that crop up in a matter of hours, he added.

So what can federal employees do to be prepared? First, be sure to stay informed by signing up for alerts from the Weather Service and OPM. Also, if you don’t already have a telework arrangement, talk to your boss now about telework, Hunter said. Working from home is a good way for employees to balance the need for safety with getting their jobs done, he said.

For more on OPM’s operating status procedures in Washington, click here.

In other news from OPM, federal employees looking to continue their education will have another option for tuition discounts. OPM has partnered with the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law to offer 10 percent off of tuition for the master of science in law (MSL) or the master of laws (LL.M.) programs. The discount takes effect immediately and spouses of federal employees are also eligible, according to the announcement.

This is the first law school to join the tuition discount program, but a number of other schools offer federal employees a break on costs. Click here for our chart summarizing the higher ed bargains already available.

Secret Service agents are another step closer to receiving the full overtime pay they earned during the presidential campaign. The House in a sparsely attended session on Tuesday again passed a bill (H.R. 6302) to ensure that most employees who exceeded a cap on overtime pay during the busy election season are fully compensated for their time. Current law guiding Secret Service operations limits agents’ annual salary to that of a General Schedule-15, step 10 employee. Patrick O’Carroll, executive director of the Federal Law Enforcement Association, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a November hearing some Secret Service workers have been shorted as much as $30,000-$40,000 in overtime pay due to the cap.

The House first approved the bill in late November, but re-passage was necessary after Senate amended it to cover the Uniformed and the Administrative Professional and Technical divisions of the Secret Service.

Lawmakers also acted on a measure that will help some veterans. Those forced out of the military due to combat-related injuries after 1991 should keep an eye on their mailboxes—the government may owe them some money due to a Defense Department tax withholding error on military severance payments.

On Saturday, the Senate unanimously passed the Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act, which requires the Pentagon to notify vets of the overpayments and explain how they can file amended tax returns to recover the overcharge. The House passed the legislation earlier in the week; the bill now awaits President Obama’s signature.

As Kellie Lunney reported in April:

It’s unclear how many veterans have been affected, but the nonprofit National Veterans Legal Services Program estimated it could be close to 14,000 vets who were wrongfully taxed, going back as far as 1991, for a total of $78 million in lost compensation.

The amount of lost compensation could vary widely among individual veterans, Thomas Moore, project manager for NVLSP’s Lawyers Serving Warriors initiative, told Lunney. For a detailed explanation of the issue, read Lunney’s report here.