Personnel Management Office October 27, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice publishes the interim adjustments for the Alaska and Pacific Nonforeign Area Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA) areas. The Federal Government conducts COLA surveys in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to set COLA rates. These surveys are conducted once every 3 years on a rotating basis. In between COLA surveys, the Government adjusts COLA rates for the areas not surveyed using the relative change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the COLA area compared with the Washington-Baltimore CPI. The Alaska and Pacific COLA areas were not surveyed in 2005. Therefore, OPM is calculating and publishing interim adjustments for these COLA areas.

The Office of Personnel Management is publishing a proposed regulation to change the cost-of-living allowance rates received by certain white-collar Federal and U.S. Postal Service employees in Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The changes are the result of living-cost surveys conducted by OPM in 2005 and interim adjustments OPM calculated based on relative Consumer Price Index differences between the cost-of-living allowance areas and the Washington, DC area.