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B-197584 1 (1980-02-05)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabjrd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGrO. D.C. 20548 B-197584 The Honorable James 11. Hanley Chairman, Committee on Post Office and Civil Service House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chairman: You have requested ourcomments on H. R. 5995, a bill to amend titles 5 and 37 of the United States Code to authorize teg pay of Federal employees and uniformed service personnel to be continued during periods in which the enactment of appropriations is delayed. The proposed legislation, if enacted, would constitute a permanent indef- inite appropriation of whatever amount of funds is necessary to meet obliga- tions to pay Federal employees when other appropriations for this pay have expired and new appropriations have not been enacted. The legislati6n would make these funds available automatically without any further action by the Congress. TERMINOLOGY We have several comments on the proposed legislation. First, although clearly defined in the bill, we suggest that use of the term lapsed appropri- ations be eliminated from the bill and replaced with the term expired appro- priations. The term lapsed appropriations is no longer used in government accounting. Current usage among the agencies favors the term expired appro- priation. This term is used in the 1976 edition of OMB Circular A-34. More- over, the current version of the GAO booklet Terms Used in the Budgetary Pro- cess, does not include the term lapsed appropriation. COVERAGE As drafted, subsection (b), both of proposed 5 U.S.C. § 5527 and 37 U.S.C. § 1010, would limit continuation of pay to employees or members who remained in the same position or duty assignment after the expiration of appropriations as they were in immediately before the expiration. This language fulfills the apparent intent of the drafters of the bill to continue the status quo until regular appropriations are enacted. On the other hand, this language would effectively preclude transfers or other changes of job after the expiration of appropriations because the af- fected employee or member would be ineligible for continuation of pay. Promo- tions involving a change of job title might be similarly affected. This lan- guage, therefore, greatly limits agencies' management flexibility.

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