The FBI has been authorized to develop a personnel demonstration project for up to 3,000 hard-to-keep employees under a provision signed by President Clinton last week.
The 1998 appropriations act for the Commerce, Justice and State departments (H.R. 2267) includes language allowing the FBI to develop a 3-year pilot program to test personnel flexibilities for certain scientific and technical employees. The law gives the same authority to the Treasury Department for certain employees in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Customs Service and the Secret Service.
The provision allows the FBI and the Treasury to waive personnel management rules set out in Title 5 of the U.S. Code and use more flexible tools, such as broad pay bands and bonus pay. The FBI, in a draft plan released this summer, proposed offering scientists in its laboratory more money to keep them from going to the private sector. The FBI would also like to offer higher salaries to employees in other fields.
The provision requires the FBI director to submit a plan on how the authority will be used to Congress within three months.
The Clinton administration originally opposed the FBI plan, saying that current laws and regulations offer enough flexibilities for retaining scientific and technical employees. President Clinton said he still does not think the provision is needed.
"While I strongly support efforts to ensure the highest quality workforce for these critical law enforcement agencies, this new authority does not appear necessary," Clinton said. "There is no evidence of recruitment and retention problems for these occupational authorities."
Clinton said he will direct the FBI and the Treasury Department to work with the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management before they develop any plans.
Similar demonstration projects are being tested at the National Institute for Standards and Technology, the Commerce Department and several Defense Department installations.
NEXT STORY: Quote/Unquote