[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 21, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E731]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCTION OF THE FEDERAL EMPLOYEE FLEXIBILITY ACT OF 1999

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 21, 1999

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to reintroduce the Federal 
Employee Flexibility Act of 1999. This bill will extend to federal 
employees the same commuting benefits that have been given to private 
sector employees under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st 
century (TEA-21). This is a very important bill which could have a 
significant impact in helping the Washington metropolitan region and a 
great many others with federal employees come into attainment with 
Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards. For this reason, 
I am introducing this bill in time for Earth Day. Senators John Chafee 
and Daniel Patrick Moynihan also recognize the potential environmental 
benefits of this bill, and they are reintroducing companion legislation 
in the Senate today.
  Prior to the enactment of TEA-21, the federal tax code contained an 
anomaly that in practice discouraged employers from using mass 
transportation or other means other than driving. Previously, employers 
could provide tax-free up to $65 per month ($100 by 2002) in transit 
benefits in lieu of taxable salary. However, if any employee within a 
company elected to take the salary instead of the transit benefit, the 
transit passes for all the other employees would lose their tax-free 
status. This made employers wary of offering any transit benefits.
  Likewise, employers were allowed to offer tax-free parking up to a 
value of $170 per employee in lieu of some other taxable benefit, such 
as salary. However, if any employee chose to receive the taxable 
benefit rather than parking privileges, the parking of all employees of 
the company became taxable. The result was that employers were 
encouraged to grant all employees tax-free parking and employees were 
given no choice as to ``cashing out'' the benefit and commuting by 
other means such as walking or car pooling.
  TEA-21 included language that eliminated this all-or-nothing approach 
for the private sector. However, federal employees were inadvertently 
left out of this more flexible approach. Federal compensation law must 
be modified to specifically authorize federal employees to have the 
option of receiving transit, parking, or additional salary. The bill 
that I introduce today provides this specific authorization.
  The absence of a specific authorization has had a greater negative 
impact on the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area than on other cities 
and regions. As the federal city, Washington, D.C. has a far greater 
percentage of federal workers than other cities. In addition, the 
region has the second worst traffic congestion in the United States, 
behind the Los Angeles area. I believe my bill will go a long way 
toward relieving some of that unbearable congestion if federal 
employees who live in Maryland, Virginia, and outlying areas of the 
District are given incentives to commute into downtown Washington by 
means other than driving every day.
  Since coming to Congress, I have worked hard to ensure that federal 
agencies and their accompanying jobs remain in the District. Last year, 
I signed a Federal Facilities Recruitment and Retention Pledge for 
Washington D.C. and its Inner Suburbs to ``actively work to locate 
Washington Metro area federal facilities within \1/2\ mile of a 
Metrorail station'' and to ``give preference in federal facility 
location decisions to sites first within the Nation's Capital . . .'' 
This is a critical goal, and I work hard to carry out this pledge. 
However, we do not have much trouble getting federal agencies to remain 
in the District, and indeed have insufficient land for many federal 
facilities that would prefer to be here. Our greatest unmet challenges 
are the air quality and the congestion that pose immediate and 
dangerous threats to the quality of life, the growth, and the economy 
of this region. This bill is an important step toward moving us in the 
quest to overtake this challenge. I urge the support of Members as well 
to eliminate unintentional discrimination in benefits for federal 
employees when compared to those this body has already granted private 
sector employees.

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