New OPM guidance on ‘burrowing in’
November 9th, 2009 | Agencies HR Management OPM | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
A quick heads-up, in case you haven’t heard: The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo late last week announcing a new policy on political appointees “burrowing in” at the end of an administration.
The memo, from OPM director John Berry, requires all agencies to get OPM’s permission before moving political appointees into career positions (at all levels). OPM previously required permission for such moves only during election years. The policy, which takes effect in 2010, applies to anyone who has held a politically-appointed job in the previous five years.
OPM’s reviews will be conducted by career employees.
“Burrowing in” attracted a lot of attention late last year, as it does every election year: Roughly 20 political appointees switched to career jobs during the waning months of the Bush administration.
Tags: John Berry, political appointees
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
Same-sex benefits update
June 17th, 2009 | Pay & Benefits | Posted by Steve Losey
The White House has released a fact sheet outlining the benefits it will grant to same-sex domestic partners of gay and lesbian federal employees today:
- Domestic partners of federal employees can be added to the long-term care insurance program.
- Federal employees will be allowed to use sick leave to care for domestic partners and their non-biological, non-adopted children.
The memo will also outline benefits for partners of State Department Foreign Service officers, who for the first time will:
- Be able to use medical facilities at posts abroad.
- Be medically evacuated from posts abroad.
- Be counted when State measures a Foreign Service officer’s family size to determine housing allocations.
Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry is speaking with reporters at 3 p.m. on a conference call. Check back here this afternoon to find out what additional benefits, if any, will be included in the memorandum President Barack Obama plans to sign at 5:45 p.m.
Tags: John Berry, Office of Personnel Management, same-sex benefits
Obama's pay-for-performance plan
June 1st, 2009 | Pay & Benefits | Posted by Steve Losey
New Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry’s announcement last week that the Obama administration wants all federal employees to be paid based on how well they perform doesn’t exactly have federal unions doing cartwheels. The American Federation of Government Employees said pay for performance can’t work in the government, and said that the General Schedule is enough to reward hard workers. The National Treasury Employees Union, on the other hand, said it would wait and see what Berry comes up with.
And the National Federation of Federal Employees just weighed in on the issue this morning. Though President Rick Brown said he felt better about the issue after talking with Berry last Friday and praised his “good-faith” approach to reform, he also had a warning: Don’t simply warm over leftover proposals from the Bush administration.
Director Berry assured me that this is not an attempt to repackage what we feel are ill-conceived Bush-era pay schemes. . . . [W]e do not expect to see proposals that even closely resemble the so-called pay for performance plans put forward under the previous administration. Everyone agrees that more needs to be done to reward high performers, and we are eager to explore these ideas with the administration.
What do you think? Can pay for performance work in a federal office? Why, or why not? What have your experiences been with such systems?
Tags: John Berry, Office of Personnel Management, pay for performance
OPM to unveil new telework policy
April 28th, 2009 | HR Management | Posted by Steve Losey
The Office of Personnel Management is going to announce the Obama administration’s new telework policy tomorrow morning. OPM Director John Berry, along with Reps. John Sarbanes, D-Md., and Gerald Connolly, D-Va., will outline his plan to improve the government’s efficiency by expanding the use of telework.
In a statement announcing the Capitol Hill press conference, Berry said:
Telework is good for the environment [and] good for the continuity of government operations. It also shows the commitment of President Barack Obama to provide a work/life program that is improving the quality of life for federal employees.
Check back with Federal Times tomorrow to find out what OPM has planned.
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
White House names John Berry to head OPM
March 3rd, 2009 | Transition | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
John Berry, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park, has officially been nominated to head the Office of Personnel Management. There’s been speculation about his appointment since January, but until now it’s been just that – speculation.
Update, 4:33 p.m.: Positive reactions so far from federal employee unions. Here’s one from the American Federation of Government Employees.
John Berry at OPM?
January 13th, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Watkins
The Washington Post’s Al Kamen reports this morning that John Berry, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park, has accepted an offer by President-elect Barack Obama to become director of the Office of Personnel Management.
Berry previously served as executive director of the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of the nation’s wildlife, and before that, as assistant secretary of the Interior Department for management. In the mid-1990s he directed government relations for the Smithsonian and, between 1985 and 1994, served as legislative director for Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
John Berry
Among the first to welcome the news was the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley. In a statement released today, the union leader hailed Berry as someone who will “help return respect to the federal work force and help attract the best and the brightest to public service.” Kelley said she worked with Berry while he was an aide to Hoyer in the creation of the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, which created locality pay rates and customized pay scales for specialized groups of federal employees, such as administrative law judges and certain law enforcement officials.
What do you think of the choice of Berry as OPM director? What will be his biggest challenges?
Tags: John Berry, OPM