Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2003

FEDERAL WORKFORCE FLEXIBILITY ACT OF 2003 -- (House of Representatives - October 06, 2004)
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I am pleased to join with the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman TOM DAVIS) in consideration of S. 129, the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004, which would provide a variety of personnel flexibilities for Federal agencies.

Among other things, these government-wide flexibilities would provide Federal agencies with additional tools for recruiting employees for difficult-to-fill positions and for retaining employees with unusual qualifications. I am pleased that the flexibilities in this bill apply government-wide, and I view this as a better approach than the agency-specific reform bills that Congress has passed in recent years.

During the subcommittee markup of S. 129, this subcommittee accepted my amendment that prohibits recruitment, relocation and retention bonuses from being paid to political appointees. There is no evidence that the Federal Government is having difficulty recruiting or retaining political appointees, and therefore, such bonuses are not needed for this group of employees.

In addition, my amendment requires the Office of Personnel Management to report the number of bonuses paid under the bill. This will allow Congress to evaluate whether these bonuses are effective in improving the recruitment and retention of highly qualified employees.

Earlier this month, we were reminded of how important it is to make these kinds of determinations. The Government Accounting Office, or GAO, report found that agencies are not using all of the hiring flexibilities that Congress has given them over the years. This troubling GAO finding deserves this committee's further oversight. After all, it does no good to authorize recruiting tools that are never used.

Furthermore, the minority amendment recommends that OPM monitor recruitment bonuses paid by one Federal agency to hire an individual working in another Federal agency that is located in the same geographic area. OPM also will have to study bonuses that are used to keep current employees from leaving a position at one Federal agency for a position at another Federal agency. It is not generally in the government's best interest for agencies to engage in bidding wars over each other's employees. OPM should ensure that bonuses paid to employees moving within the Federal Government are an effective use of the government's resources and do not negatively impact the human capital needs of the entire Federal Government.

Finally, I want to highlight one provision in this bill that provides compensatory time for Federal employees when they travel on official business during nonworking hours. If it is necessary for an employee to travel on Sunday to attend an out-of-town meeting on Monday, that employee should receive some type of credit for giving up his or her weekend to travel for the government. I am pleased that an effort to place caps on compensatory time was dropped from the bill.

I want to commend the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) and the ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman), for their leadership in bringing this legislation to the floor. I urge its support.