Washington, D.C. - U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Associate Director for Strategic Human Resources Policy Nancy Kichak today testified before the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia, urging Congress to enact a measure sponsored by Representatives Tom Davis and Frank Wolf of Virginia, and Kenny Marchant of Texas, to rehire retired Federal Workers without penalty.

"The Federal workforce is aging, and many of our employees are reaching retirement eligibility," testified Kichak. "Many of these individuals have the skills needed to mentor the next generation of Federal workers, and to accomplish sensitive, short-term projects, but we need a mechanism that will not penalize them for doing so."

The legislation would make reemployment both attractive to annuitants and easy for agencies to use, and is designed to avoid abuse. Should the bill become law, individuals who might otherwise provide their services to a contractor will be more inclined to return to work for the Government part-time, for a limited period. Amending the law in this way would help eliminate the inequity in the treatment of reemployed Federal retirees compared to private-sector retirees who continue to collect their pensions and full salaries when they are hired by the Federal Government.

In addition, Kichak encouraged the full House to pass H.R. 2780 by Rep. James Moran of Virginia. This bill would remove the penalty under the Civil Service Retirement System in the calculation of the "high-three-years" average salary on which annuities are based, which results from part-time service at the end of a career. The full House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform passed the bill on April 30, 2008.

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