FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 1, 1999

CONTACT: Ivonne Cuñarro (202) 606-2402 mworenst@opm.gov

OPMs FY 2000 Budget Supports High-Quality, Performance-Oriented, Diverse Workforce for the 21^st Century

WASHINGTON, D.C. President Clintons proposed FY 2000 budget for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) totals $14.5 billion, an increase of $0.9 billion over FY 1999. This request includes the first significant salaries and expenses budget increase, $11 million, for OPM in six years, 5.9 percent over FY 99.

I am very pleased with the Presidents proposal for OPM. This funding would allow us to continue providing the leadership and services that the federal community has come to rely upon to protect the merit system, strengthen performance-oriented compensation, support family-friendly policies, and promote workforce diversity and veterans preference, OPM Director Janice R. Lachance said.

Among the priorities we outlined in OPMs Annual Performance Plan for fiscal year 2000 are a number of significant initiatives to promote the recruitment and training of an increasingly high-skilled, professional, and diverse federal workforce for the 21^st century workplace, Lachance added.

Ninety-nine percent of the budget, $14.3 billion, covers mandatory government payments for annuitants and employees health benefits, life insurance, and retirement. Only one percent of the budget, $197.7 million, is discretionary. Since 1993, OPM has downsized 52 percent of its workforce from 6,208 to 2,984 full time equivalents.

OPMs proposed discretionary budget includes an increase of $6.2 million in its Salaries and Expenses account, of which $3.4 million would be used to reimburse the National Archives and Records Administration for the cost of storing and servicing official personnel files for all agencies. Also, $2 million would be allocated to develop strategies to recruit and train students

for information security and technology occupations in the federal government, $0.6 million would help expand OPMs oversight efforts to ensure compliance with the merit system, and $0.2 million would be invested in the agencys information technology infrastructure.

The budget also includes an increase of $4.8 million in the transfers from the Trust Funds, of which $4 million would support a Retirement Systems Modernization Project. Also, $0.3 million would be used to assist in the development of a new Center for Benefits Design and Delivery to help improve employee earned benefits programs, and the remaining $0.5 million would enable the OPM Inspector General to increase the frequency of audits of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

OPM has established seven priorities in its Annual Performance Plan for FY 2000. These include:

• Improve the linkage between pay and performance by maintaining a flexible framework for performance management which encourages and rewards good performance and through the development of a total performance-oriented compensation system.
• Provide flexibilities and tools to facilitate the hiring for mission-critical occupations as well as to recruit a high-quality, diverse workforce for the 21^st century.
• Strengthen oversight to support compliance of the merit system.
• Refocus attention on training and development to produce a high performance workforce. The interagency Task Force on Federal Training Technology, chaired by Director Lachance, would make recommendations for the effective use of technology for the training of federal employees.
• Modernize OPMs internal Information Technology Systems to provide better information for merit system oversight reviews, retirement processing, and planning and budgeting. These efforts are in support of a Virtual Federal Human Resources Data Repository which would streamline government-wide reporting of HR data.
• Support family-friendly workplaces, including affordable child care options, alternative work schedules, and family and medical leave.
• Improve OPM financial management.

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