House sends GAO pay bill to President Bush
Measure would reimburse more than 300 analysts who weren’t given raises for two years despite acceptable job performances.
The House on Tuesday approved the final version of legislation that would provide lump-sum payments to Government Accountability Office analysts denied pay increases in 2006 and 2007, moving it to President Bush's desk.
The bill (H.R. 5683) would grant back pay to more than 300 GAO analysts whose salaries stayed level under a pay system that began in 2005, even though they received satisfactory performance ratings.
The House passed its initial version of the measure, introduced by Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., in June. The vote on Tuesday was to approve modifications made by the Senate, including an amendment that would require GAO to fully fund the retirement contributions of employees who were denied annual adjustments in 2006 and/or 2007.
The bill addresses complaints about pay reforms under David M. Walker, who resigned as comptroller general in March. The reforms resulted in a split payband in GAO's mid-level ranks; employees assigned to the lower half of the salary range were denied raises, even though most received ratings of "meets expectations." This sparked congressional hearings and an employee effort to unionize.
In addition to granting back pay, the legislation would guarantee that employees performing at the meets expectations level would receive future annual pay hikes that are at least equal to General Schedule raises. The bill also would allow nonsenior-level workers to include performance-based bonuses in their high-three salary calculations for retirement, raise the GS-15 pay cap at the agency from $149,000 to $158,000 and create an inspector general's office at GAO.