Federal Daily - September 10, 2009

TSOs Would Get Pay Increase With Move to GS Pay System

Most Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) would receive pay raises if they were converted from the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Performance Accountability Standards System (PASS) to the General Schedule (GS), according to a new analysis. The proposed conversion is part of the Transportation Security Workforce Enhancement Act, H.R.1881, which passed the House Homeland Security Committee and now is being considered by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis that looked at the cost of the conversion calculated that of the 60,000 employees who would be converted, about 50,000 would receive a pay increase as a result of the conversion. Approximately 36,000 employees in the bottom two bands of TSA’s PASS pay system would be converted to various steps within the GS-5 pay grade, and receive an average pay increase of about $1,700 as a result, CBO said. Employees in the next two higher pay bands would be classified at higher pay grades and also would receive a salary increase as a result of a changeover, CBO said. Under the bill, no employee would suffer a reduction in pay with the conversion. Overall, CBO estimates that moving to the GS would increase agency costs by $626 million over the five-year period from Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 through FY 2014. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said the pay increase estimates support the union’s contention that the PASS system does not fairly compensate TSOs. “The nation’s TSOs are considerably underpaid and subject to an arbitrary and punitive pay system,” AFGE President John Gage on Sept. 8. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=1041  or www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/105xx/doc10546/hr1881.pdf

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Bill Would Create 63 Additional Federal Judgeships

To reduce a backlog in the nation’s federal courts, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on Sept. 8 introduced legislation that—if signed into law—would create 63 new permanent and temporary judgeships across the country, including 12 circuit judgeships. Congress has added only a handful of district court judgeships since 1990, and no new circuit court judgeships in that period, said Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Existing federal judges face an increasing workload as the number of cases increases. In 2008, the average weighted number of case filings for district courts reached 472 per judgeship, well above the Judicial Conference’s standards, Leahy said. “The federal courts have been struggling with the overwhelming burden of heavy caseloads,” Leahy said. “The time to enact a comprehensive federal judgeship bill is long overdue.” To see more, go to: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200909/090809c.html.

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TRICARE Beneficiaries Report Fewer Racial Health Disparities, Says Study

Minority TRICARE beneficiaries reported fewer ethnic and racial health disparities while receiving care in the TRICARE system compared to experiences reported by Americans who use other healthcare systems, according to a study detailed in an article in the July 2009 Journal of the National Medical Association. Minority TRICARE beneficiaries reported positively on such measures as finding a doctor and receiving preventive health services. In addition, higher proportions of minority TRICARE beneficiaries reported satisfaction with health care experiences compared to white TRICARE beneficiaries, according to the study. TRICARE Management Activity, which cited the findings on its Web site, noted that decreasing and eliminating health disparities is an overarching goal of the Department of Health and Human Services’s “Healthy People 2010” health initiative. Aspects of military culture and service entitlements make DoD a model for decreasing ethnic and racial health disparities, said Ann Bagchi, the study’s lead author and a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.  To see more, go to: www.tricare.mil/pressroom/news.aspx?fid=553 or www.nmanet.org/images/uploads/Publications/OC663a.pdf.

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