Federal Daily - March 19, 2010

Effort to Ax Tax-Delinquent Feds Draws Fire

Proposed legislation that would require the firing of federal employees with outstanding IRS tax liens drew a lot of criticism at a March 17 hearing on the bill before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce.

Under the bill, any fed with an outstanding personal tax debt that has triggered a wage or property lien would be subject to termination. Prospective employees with tax liens would similarly be banned from federal employment.

Among those who took shots at the bill, H.R. 4735, was National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley, who said the bill would deny federal employees the due process rights enjoyed by other taxpayers. Kelley also noted that the issuance of a lien, which under the proposed measure could get a fed fired, is not necessarily a final determination of tax liability.

She also pointed out another obvious shortcoming—if anything, the bill would hinder feds from repaying those back taxes. “We believe that terminating their employment or preventing them from obtaining gainful employment would only serve to worsen their financial situation and lessen their ability to repay,” Kelley said.

J. Ward Morrow, American Federation of Government Employees assistant general counsel for legislation, concurred. “If an individual is unemployed, they will be in default for a far longer period of time and have less incentive to pay any payments,” Morrow said. “To erect a permanent barrier to any federal employment would be counter to the desire to get the debt paid.”

There are also potential technical problems with the proposed bill introduced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. Christopher Rizek, a tax expert and adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said that credit and loss carryovers can erase existing tax liabilities. And, in certain instances, he said, litigation over the existence or amount of a tax liability may even be occurring at the time the IRS files an outstanding assessment or tax lien.

To see more, go to: http://tinyurl.com/ylnco4m.

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Bill Would Increase Hazardous Duty Pay, FSA

Servicemembers in combat zones would see significant increases in hazardous duty pay and their Family Separation Allowance if a bill introduced by Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., is signed into law.

The bill, H.R. 4440, would increase the rate of Hostile Fire Pay and Imminent Danger Pay from $225 per month to $600 a month, McNerney said in a March 15 letter to the House Armed Services Committee, which is developing the Fiscal Year 2011 National Defense Authorization Act.

Under the bill, the FSA rate also would increase, from $250 per month to $450 per month. And Combat-Related Injury Rehabilitation Pay would increase from $430 a month to $600 a month.

McNerney said he introduced the bill after traveling to Afghanistan as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation and meeting with servicemembers who asked him to work to boost military pay. “Adjusting these types of compensation, which have not been increased in several years, would be a meaningful and well-deserved form of assistance for our troops and their families,” McNerney wrote.

The Pentagon’s FY 2011 budget proposal calls for a 1.4 percent pay increase for servicemembers and DoD civilians. Lawmakers authorized a pay hike of 3.4 percent for troops in the FY 2010 budget.

To see more, go to: http://tinyurl.com/yemo95w.

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Union Pushes Caucus to Support TSO Bargaining Rights

At a March 17 meeting with 28 Democratic senators, American Federation of Government Employees President John Gage continued his union’s campaign to obtain collective bargaining rights for Transportation Security Administration employees.

Gage, one of 12 union leaders at the meeting of the Senate Democratic Caucus, stressed that Transportation Security Officers not only need collective bargaining rights, but also workplace protections from discrimination and retaliation the union says are rampant at TSA. The agency generally ranks at or near the bottom in federal employee satisfaction surveys, Gage said.

Gage encouraged the senators to work to overcome Republican resistance to H.R. 1881, which would grant the bargaining rights to TSOs and get rid of TSA’s current pay system.

AFGE, along with the National Treasury Employees Union, have filed petitions with the Federal Labor Relations Authority seeking an election to become the exclusive representative of TSA’s 40,000 employees. FLRA in 2003 rejected an AFGE petition for a TSA election. While both unions have TSA chapters and represent TSOs in various venues, TSOs under law are denied the right to bargain collectively.

To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=1125.

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