OPM to announce new student loan forgiveness program
June 30th, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Losey
Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry and Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., tomorrow morning will announce a new program to forgive the student loans of people who work in the public and nonprofit sectors for 10 years. Sarbanes’ Public Service Loan Forgiveness Option will cover civil servants, as well as teachers, some health professionals and public interest attorneys.
And beginning July 1, people enrolled in the program might also be able to lower their monthly student loan payments based on a debt to income ratio. Take a look at this online calculator from the Education Department to find out if you might qualify for an income-based repayment plan, and if so, how much your monthly payments might be.
Tags: John Berry, OPM, Student loans
Food drive update: Donate the last Friday of each summer month
June 23rd, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management Uncategorized | Posted by Steve Losey
Federal agencies will start collecting food nationwide under the Feds Feed Families program this week, the Office of Personnel Management said. Canned and other unperishable food items will be picked up the last Friday in June, July and August, but agencies will put out cardboard collection bins a few days earlier, OPM Director John Berry and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., said at a press conference at a Northern Virginia food pantry.
OPM itself already has filled the 10 cardboard bins it has at the entrance to its Washington headquarters three times over, Berry said. The government hopes to collect 1 million pounds of food by the end of summer.
OPM launched the food drive because food banks often run low during the summer months, when people are often on vacation and forget to donate. Also, low-income children who are on summer vacation don’t get school lunches or breakfasts and could go hungry, Berry said:
So right when parents need the most help and they turn to the community food banks, unfortunately many of those shelves are getting thin, because the demands in our economic times are tough. [...] Federal employees know how blessed they are. They’ve got good jobs, they’re respected by their nation. This is an opportunity for them to give back to their communities and I know they’re going to step up to this plate.
And Berry said OPM is cooking up a contest to see which agency can donate the most pounds of food per employee, though he hasn’t yet settled on a prize.
OPM plans to track how much food has been donated at the drive’s official Web site, www.fedsfeedfamilies.gov.
Tags: Feds Feed Families, Frank Wolf, John Berry, OPM
Fed food drive sets lofty goal: one million pounds
June 22nd, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Rebecca Neal
The Office of Personnel Management has a lofty goal for federal workers this summer, challenging them to donate one million pounds of food to the Capitol Area Food Bank.
OPM Director John Berry and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., will announce details of the “Feds Feed Families” national food drive Tuesday afternoon at Food For Others’ Virginia warehouse in Fairfax. They’ll be joined by Lynn Brantley, director of the Capitol Area Food Bank.
President Obama has called upon all Americans to give back to their local communities, and the federal workforce has quickly mobilized. This is an unprecedented undertaking by federal workers to meet the needs of our neighbors by collecting one million pounds of food in this short amount of time,” Berry said in a news release.
Tags: Feds Feed Families, OPM
Security clearance investigators: Federal Times wants to hear from you
May 1st, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Losey
Federal Times wants to hear from security clearance investigators about your job. Do you have enough resources to conduct your investigations? Are the workloads too heavy? Do you feel pressure to sacrifice quality to clear cases faster? What needs to be done to improve the process?
E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk. If you’d prefer that your name not be published, that would be fine.
OPM: Watch out for swine flu
April 27th, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Losey
The Office of Personnel Management is warning agencies to be prepared in case swine flu hits their area. An April 26 memo from OPM Director John Berry tells managers that employees might become sick or have to care for family members who contract swine flu, and reminds them of the government’s various sick leave and family care policies.
And for employees at agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration or Customs and Border Protection – who could come into contact with travelers who may have contracted swine flu — the memo also includes advice on how to manage such encounters. OPM recommends that when a traveler is coughing, showing signs of a fever, or other symptoms that could indicate swine flu:
- Separate that individual to a private room or other area that is at least six feet away from employees and the public.
- After separating the traveler from others, notify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quarantine station.
- Give the ill traveler a surgical mask to keep him from infecting others.
- If possible, isolate the ill traveler in a room separate from the airspace of others.
Senate committee to vote on Berry Wednesday
March 31st, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Losey
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on John Berry to be the next Office of Personnel Management director tomorrow afternoon. Berry, who received few tough questions in his confirmation hearing last week, is expected to be confirmed.
Tags: John Berry, Office of Personnel Management, Transition
Hewitt, OPM settle dispute over RetireEZ calculator
February 9th, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Losey
The Office of Personnel Management has buried the hatchet with Hewitt Associates over a faulty retirement calculator, according to a statement Hewitt released earlier today:
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Hewitt have settled their dispute related to the implementation of the RetireEZ program. OPM has rescinded its October 16, 2008 termination of the contract for default and the contract has now been terminated by mutual agreement. We’re happy this matter has been resolved and we believe both parties are pleased with the outcome. We look forward to continuing to deliver outsourced retirement solutions for our current and future clients.
OPM and Hewitt aren’t saying anything about the terms of the settlement, and aren’t saying how much, if any, money OPM has recovered from Hewitt. OPM paid Hewitt $21 million before stopping work on the contract in May; the contract was originally valued at $290 million over its 10-year lifecycle. Hewitt’s calculator passed only 33 percent of tests OPM administered in early 2008, when it was contractually obligated to pass tests 95 percent of the time.
OPM still hasn’t decided how it will move forward on creating an automated annuity calculator, which was meant to ensure retirees no longer had to wait months to get their full pensions. “We’re assessing our options and will move accordingly,” OPM spokesman Mike Orenstein said.
Tags: Hewitt, OPM, RetireEZ, retirement
A warning for CSRS spouses
February 3rd, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Losey
Two retirement security groups are highlighting a little-known provision in the federal government’s rules that could hurt some spouses or children of federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System. If a CSRS employee leaves the federal government, but dies before applying for a pension, that employee’s spouses, former spouses or children would not receive a survivor annuity, the Pension Rights Center and Women’s Pension Project note.
In a letter sent yesterday to the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, the groups asked the agency to send a notice to CSRS employees reminding them of this wrinkle.
Survivors of Federal Employees Retirement System employees who leave the government and die before applying for a pension are eligible to receive a survivor annuity. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, introduced a bill in 2007 that would have ensured CSRS employees’ survivors would get an annuity regardless of when the employee left federal service, but it died in committee.
Tags: CSRS, pension, retirement
No early snow release for feds
January 27th, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Losey
Snow is closing schools and causing fender benders around the Washington area. But if you’re a federal employee hoping for permission to go home early and get started on that snowman, it’s not looking likely.
The Office of Personnel Management just told Federal Times that the weather isn’t prompting the government to make any major scheduling changes. But keep reading, and we’ll update you as soon as we hear anything new.
And please drive safely tonight and tomorrow morning — we’re now expected to get one to three inches of snow today, another inch or two tonight, and possibly sleet and freezing rain. Not quite the snowmageddon some had expected, but it’s enough to make commutes nasty.
UPDATE: Some agencies, however, are making minor adjustments to their schedules. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for example, has postponed a safety and security workshop that was scheduled for tomorrow. The workshop will now be Feb. 3.
If you know of any scheduling changes at your agency due to the weather, e-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com and I’ll post them.
Tags: Snow
Hager out, Whipple in as acting OPM director
January 23rd, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Losey
President Obama just named Kathie Ann Whipple to be acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. Whipple, who had been deputy general counsel, will immediately replace Michael Hager, who served as acting OPM director since last August.
Whipple thanked Obama for the appointment in a statement issued this morning:
I am humbled to have been designated by President Obama to serve as the acting director of OPM, an agency it has been my pleasure to serve for the past eight years. I look forward to leading OPM until the president appoints and the United States Senate confirms the next director.
Tags: Barack Obama, Office of Personnel Management, Transition, White House