bonuses

The Senate has rejected an attempt to freeze federal pay and the size of the government workforce. Also included in the defeated proposal was funding for a planned State Department security training facility.

The DoD website reports the National Guard Bureau is examining possible fraudulent bonuses.

Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate are still debating the 2011 defense authorization bill, but the lame-duck Congress may put off a vote until next year.

Your most commonly asked questions about the federal pay freeze are answered.

Director John Berry pushes back against claims from members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that federal employees are overpaid. Rep. Issa called the pay freeze a ”farce” and wants step-increases frozen for this year. Berry and Democrat lawmakers continue to make the case that feds deserve their salaries.

USPS cancels bonuses for executives, officers and administrative staff.

Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini said GSA has at least 15 different bonus structures and there are questions about the agency’s award rates. He said 85 percent of all SES performance awards are on hold in through 2013. GSA also will not hire new employees until a top-to-bottom review of the agency’s organization is completed.

The Obama administration trying a different tack on federal-employee bonuses and awards in fiscal 2014. A new directive from the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management continues clear-cut spending caps on employee awards but won’t outright ban them — even if the across-the-board spending constraints, known as sequestration, continue.

If Charles Dickens had written about the government’s bonus program he might have called his novel “Bleak House,” or maybe “Not So Great Expectations,” Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

The Internal Revenue Service and the National Treasury Employees Union reached an agreement that will see the IRS pay frontline employees performance awards starting in the spring. Acting IRS chief Danny Werfel canceled payouts of the awards last July, even though the union said the agency was obligated to pay them.