Office of Personnel Management January 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The President adjusted the rates of basic pay and locality payments for certain categories of Federal employees effective in January 2008. This notice documents those pay adjustments for the public record.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, May 22, 1995), this notice announces that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) submitted a request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for emergency clearance and review for emergency clearance collection for the Defined Benefits Technology Solution (DBTS) in support of the Retirement Systems Modernization (RSM) project at OPM. Approval of the DBTS is necessary to ensure timely administration of retirement benefits to both active and retired federal employees and their dependents. This also serves as the 60 Day Notice for full clearance review. Approximately 23,000 active federal employees will gain access to the DBTS starting in February 2008 and will have access to the tool; The subset of annuitants and other members of the public from this initial user group that will be using the tool starting in February can not be determined at the time of this submission however the audience will likely be significantly smaller than the active population. We estimate it will take approximately 20 minutes to complete most of the information collections associated with the DBTS. The majority of information collections for the DBTS are done via the internet using the Your Benefits Resources (YBR) Web site. The annual estimated burden is 2,733 hours. Comments are particularly invited on: Whether this information is necessary for the proper performance of functions on the Office of Personnel Management, and whether it will have practical utility; Whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection of information is accurate, and based on valid assumptions and methodology; and Ways in which we can minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, through the use of appropriate technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. For copies of this proposal, contact Mary Beth Smith-Toomey, OPM PRA and Forms Officer, at (202) 606-8358, Fax (202) 418-3251 or via e- mail to MaryBeth.Smith-Toomey@opm.gov. Please include your complete mailing address with your request.

On behalf of the President's Pay Agent, the Office of Personnel Management is issuing final regulations on the locality pay program for General Schedule and certain other employees. Originally published on June 22, 2007 as an interim rule with a request for comments, the regulations added Whatcom County, WA, to the Seattle locality pay area effective with the first pay period that began on or after July 23, 2007, removed the reference to a January effective date for changes made by the President's Pay Agent in locality pay area boundaries, made a number of changes in the official names of locality pay areas to correspond to revised names of Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Combined Statistical Areas as established by the Office of Management and Budget, and provided notice and documentation of a number of changes in locality pay area boundaries that resulted from revisions in Metropolitan and Combined Statistical Areas. We received no comments on the interim rule and adopt the final rule without change.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing to change the cost-of-living allowance (COLA) rates received by certain white-collar Federal and U.S. Postal Service employees in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, Alaska. The proposed rate changes are the result of living-cost surveys conducted by OPM in 2006 and interim adjustments OPM calculated based on relative Consumer Price Index differences between the cost-of-living allowance areas and the Washington, DC, area. The proposed rate changes would reduce the COLA rates in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau from 24 percent to 23 percent. OPM is also proposing a minor clarification to the Alaska COLA area boundaries to make clear the 50-mile radius is by the shortest route using paved roads.