[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15628-15629]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              FAIRNESS FOR FEDERAL WORKERS IN RHODE ISLAND

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to address an issue of critical 
importance to nearly 6,000 federal workers in the state of Rhode Island 
and to the agencies that employ them.
  The absence of federal locality pay for workers in Rhode Island has 
created serious recruitment and retention problems for federal offices 
due to the substantial federal pay differential between Rhode Island 
and the neighboring states of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
  Let me briefly give the background on this complex issue. Nine years 
ago, Congress enacted the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 
1990 to correct disparities between Federal and private salaries. The 
Act authorized the President to grant interim geographic pay 
adjustments of up to 8% in certain areas with significant pay 
disparities during 1991-1993. Beginning in 1994, the Act provided for a 
nationwide system of locality pay intended to close the gap between 
Federal and private salaries over a nine-year period.
  Unfortunately, implementation of the Act has created significant pay 
disparities among Federal employees in southern New England, in 
particular between Federal employees in Rhode Island and those in 
Massachusetts and Connecticut.
  Rhode Island is literally surrounded by locality pay areas. On its 
western border, Rhode Island is adjacent to the Hartford locality pay 
area, which includes all of New London County, Connecticut. Rhode 
Island's entire northern border is adjacent to the Boston-Worcester-
Lawrence locality pay area, which includes the towns of Douglas, 
Uxbridge, Millville, and Blackstone in Worcester County, Massachusetts; 
and all of Norfolk County, Massachusetts. The Boston pay locality even 
reaches around the state of Rhode Island to encompass the adjacent town 
of Thompson, Connecticut, which lies directly west of Woonsocket, Rhode 
Island, on the opposite side of our state from Boston. Finally, Rhode 
Island's eastern border is separated from the Boston locality pay area 
by as little as four miles.
  One facility within a few miles of the Boston locality pay area, the 
Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport--a premier Navy R&D laboratory 
with world class facilities and progressive employee benefits--has seen 
its starting salaries continue to fall below the industry average. As a 
result, the Center's acceptance rate has dropped to approximately 40% 
and the average GPA of new employees is down.
  The Federal Salary Council's eligibility criteria have created what I 
frequently refer to as a ``donut hole'' in locality pay in our region 
that leaves thousands of federal employees in Rhode Island with a minus 
3.45% pay differential in 1999 when compared to federal employees just 
a few miles to the north, east, and west.
  Mr. CHAFEE. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. REED. I will be happy to yield to the senior Senator from Rhode 
Island.
  Mr. CHAFEE. It is no wonder that Federal agencies in Rhode Island 
have trouble recruiting and retaining qualified employees given the 
very short travel time to the higher-paying Boston or Hartford locality 
pay areas. Most Americans know that Rhode Island is the smallest state 
in the nation, but I think it is worth emphasizing just how small the 
dimensions are, and the impact that has on commuting patterns in our 
region.
  It is only 35 miles from the eastern edge of the Hartford locality 
pay area in Connecticut to the Boston locality pay area in Dartmouth, 
Massachusetts. In between, a little more than 30 miles across, is the 
state of Rhode Island and 3,700 federal employees without locality pay 
in Newport County. Where is the incentive for a federal employee living 
in central Rhode Island to continue working for a federal agency in our 
state when he or she could drive less than 20 miles in any direction 
and receive a nearly 4% raise?
  Mr. REED. The Senator is correct. This situation makes no sense given 
the similar cost of labor across southern New England and the unusually 
heavy commuting patterns between Rhode Island and the Boston and 
Hartford pay localities, especially with the Boston area. It is only 45 
miles from Providence to downtown Boston.
  The question before us now is, how did we get into this situation, 
and how can we correct it? The main obstacle to federal locality pay in 
Rhode Island is the federal government's use of county data to 
determine the eligibility of ``Areas of Application'' to existing pay 
localities. First of all, I would note that Rhode Island has no county 
governments, and the Federal Salary Council's use of county data is, 
therefore, impractical and arbitrary. Secondly, the criteria for 
application are structured in such a way that our state cannot become 
eligible. To be considered, a county must be contiguous to a pay 
locality; contain at least 2,000 General Schedule employees; have a 
significant level of urbanization; and demonstrate some economic 
linkage with the pay locality, defined as commuting at a level of 5% or 
more into or from the areas in question.
  Mr. CHAFEE. If the Senator will yield, I would point out that in our 
state, Newport County surpasses the employee requirement but is not 
contiguous to a pay locality because the President's Pay Agent excluded 
the towns of Westport and Fall River, Massachusetts from the Boston-
Worcester-Lawrence pay locality. As a result, less than four miles 
separate the 3,700 Federal employees in Newport County from the 
locality pay provided to employees in the Boston pay locality.
  Given our State's extremely small size and, as the Senator mentioned, 
the fact that Rhode Island has no county governments, the Salary 
Council's use of county data is inappropriate. The total land area of 
Rhode Island is only about two-thirds the size of Worcester

[[Page 15629]]

County, Massachusetts, nearly all of which falls inside the Boston pay 
locality. As long as the Pay Agent applies its criteria on a county-by-
county basis, no part of Rhode Island will be eligible for a higher 
level of locality pay, and existing Federal pay disparities between 
Rhode Island and its neighbors will continue to degrade Federal 
services in our state.
  Simply put, the FEPCA law was intended to resolve a public-private 
pay disparity. In southern New England, however, it has created a 
public-public pay disparity.
  Mr. REED. The Senator is absolutely right. And to remedy this 
situation, the bill we have introduced, S. 1313, the Rhode Island 
Federal Worker Fairness Act, will require the President's Pay Agent to 
consider the State of Rhode Island as one county strictly for the 
purposes of locality pay. We believe this bill will enable Rhode 
Island, the smallest state in the nation and about the same size as the 
average county in the United States, to apply for locality pay on an 
equal footing with county governments in other parts of the country.
  We look forward to working with the distinguished Chairman of the 
Governmental Affairs Committee, Senator Thompson, and the Committee's 
ranking member, Senator Lieberman, in our effort to reduce the 
inequities among Federal employees in our region and enable federal 
offices in Rhode Island to attract and retain qualified employees.
  I yield the floor.

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