5 CFR 550 - PAY ADMINISTRATION (GENERAL)

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing regulations to implement the Pathways Programs established by E.O. 13562, signed December 27, 2010, to provide clear paths to Federal internships and potential careers in Government for students and recent graduates. As directed by the President, the Pathways Programs consist of the Internship Program, the Recent Graduates Program and the Presidential Management Fellows Program. The President determined that these programs should be excepted from the competitive service and placed in the newly created Schedule D of the excepted service. OPM's proposed implementing regulations would provide for more transparency in Federal internship opportunities, limit the programs so they are used as a supplement to competitive examining and not a substitute for it, apply veterans' preference, and provide for OPM oversight. Agencies would only be permitted to use the Pathways Programs as part of an overall workforce planning strategy and pursuant to an agreement with OPM. The regulations would require agencies to make an investment in the program participants' development through training, mentorship, and other means. The regulations would further require agencies to conduct meaningful assessments of participant performance as part of an agency's determination as to whether the program participants should be converted to permanent positions in the competitive service.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is proposing to revise its regulations on evacuation pay and the separate maintenance allowance for duty at Johnston Island to ensure that same-sex domestic partners of Federal employees and the children of such domestic partners have access to these benefits to the same extent as spouses of Federal employees and their children. These changes would fulfill the Administration policy expressed in Sections 1(a)(v) and (a)(vii) of the President's June 2, 2010, memorandum on the “Extension of Benefits to Same-Sex Domestic Partners of Federal Employees.”

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing proposed regulations to eliminate the 10-year statute of limitations on collection of debt by administrative offset, which includes centralized salary offset. The proposed regulations conform with an amendment made by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. This change would authorize the offset of nontax payments (via salary offset) to collect delinquent Federal debt without regard to the amount of time the debt has been delinquent. OPM is also proposing several technical changes to be consistent with the Department of the Treasury Federal Claims Collection Standards and salary offset regulations.