[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 163 (Wednesday, August 23, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 43724-43726]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-20881]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 163 / Wednesday, August 23, 1995 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 43724]]
OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
5 CFR Part 315
RIN 3206-AG81
Career and Career-Conditional Employment; Noncompetitive
Appointment of Certain Former Overseas Employees
AGENCY: Office of Personnel Management.
ACTION: Proposed rule with request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposes to issue
regulations implementing Executive Order 12721. That order authorizes
OPM to set the conditions under which Federal agencies can
noncompetitively appoint certain former overseas employees, i.e.,
family members who accompanied their sponsors on official assignment
overseas. Among the conditions for noncompetitive appointment in the
United States is the requirement that the former overseas employee have
52 weeks of service. Under the current regulations, up to 26 weeks of
the 52-week service requirement can be waived for a family member whose
expected 52 weeks of employment were cut short because of an emergency
situation which necessitated the family member's relocation to the
United States. An emergency situation includes conflict, terrorism, or
the threat of terrorism but does not include a personal situation such
as ill health.
This proposal would permit the agency that employed the individual
overseas to waive a portion of the 52-week overseas service requirement
for family members forced to return to the United States because of
military drawdowns or other management-initiated decisions not personal
to the individual. In addition, the proposal would streamline the
entire regulation by removing duplication and adding clarifying
information.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before October 23, 1995.
ADDRESSES: Send or deliver written comments to Leonard R. Klein,
Associate Director for Employment, U.S. Office of Personnel Management,
1900 E Street NW., Room 6F08, Washington, DC 20415.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Russell on 202-606-0830, FAX
202-606-2329, or TDD 202-606-0023.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Executive Order 12362, dated May 12, 1982,
first demonstrated the U.S. Government's interest in enhancing the
well-being of U.S. Government families by improving career employment
opportunities for family members of civilian and military employees
assigned abroad. By providing family members with access to career
positions in the United States based on their nonpermanent service
overseas, the Executive order helped Government families cope with the
disruption resulting from assignments to overseas locations where
career jobs for family members typically do not exist. Executive Order
12362 permitted these family members to qualify for noncompetitive
appointment in the United States after 24 months of overseas service
under nonpermanent appointment. Executive Order 12585 of March 3, 1987,
reduced the 24-month service requirement to 18 months. Executive Order
12721, dated July 30, 1990, revoked the two previous Orders and
authorized the Office of Personnel Management to establish requirements
under which family members could qualify for noncompetitive
appointment. OPM regulations issued on April 3, 1991 (56 FR 13575) then
reduced the service requirement to 52 weeks and also permitted OPM or
agencies under delegated agreement to waive up to 26 weeks of the
service requirement in emergency situations as defined in the
regulations, for example, conflict or terrorism.
Since 1991, many changes have occurred in the United States
military presence overseas.
As a result of the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Government is
reducing (drawing down) the number of personnel (civilian and military)
assigned overseas. As a result, family members of these returning
personnel are relocating to the United States before they have worked
the full 52 weeks, the amount of time necessary to qualify for
noncompetitive appointment. The Department of Defense recommends, and
we concur, that these family members should not be penalized by the
service drawdowns. Consequently, the proposed regulation would delegate
to agencies the authority to waive up to 26 weeks of service in
nonpersonal situations that necessitate the relocation of family
members out of the overseas area.
Section Analysis
Following is a summary of the changes we would make; section
numbers refer to the proposed regulation.
A. Sec. 315.608(a)(1): Clarifies that an appointee under this
section receives a career rather than a career-conditional appointment
when the individual has already satisfied requirements for career
tenure or is appointed to a position that requires career tenure upon
appointment.
B. Sec. 315.608(a): Clarifies that the United States includes Guam,
Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands for purpose of Stateside appointment.
C. Sec. 315.608(b)(1): Drops the requirement that an individual
meet the overseas service requirement in a 10-year period beginning
after January 1, 1980. We see no need for this requirement.
D. Sec. 315.608(b)(2): Drops the reference to performance ratings
earned after January 1, 1984. We see no need for this requirement.
E. Sec. 315.608(c): To include military drawdowns, broadens the
conditions under which agencies are allowed to waive up to 26 weeks of
the 52-week overseas service requirement. (We explained our rationale
for this change in the Supplementary Information.) Also, delegates the
waiver authority to agencies in keeping with the National Performance
Review (NPR) recommendation to give agencies more flexibility.
F. Sec. 315.608(d): Clarifies when the 3-year period of eligibility
begins, i.e., when a family member returns to the United States to
resume residence as opposed to returning for vacation, training, etc.
G. Sec. 315.608(d): Removes reference to Stateside appointment
before January 1, 1994. Changes the authority to extend an individual's
period of employment eligibility beyond the 3-year period in two
specific circumstances from the
[[Page 43725]]
Office of Personnel Management to the hiring agency.
H. Sec. 315.608(e)(4)(ii): Defines local hire appointments to
include overseas limited appointments when made on a temporary or term
basis.
I. Sec. 315.608(e)(4)(v): Removes reference to the Federal
Personnel Manual. That document was abolished on December 31, 1994.
Regulatory Flexibility Act
I certify that these regulations will not have a significant
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities because the
regulation pertains only to Federal employees and agencies.
Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Review
This rule has been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget
in accordance with Executive Order 12866.
List of Subjects in 5 CFR Part 315
Government employees.
U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
James B. King,
Director.
Accordingly, OPM proposes to amend part 315 of title 5, Code of
Federal Regulations, as follows:
PART 315--CAREER AND CAREER-CONDITIONAL APPOINTMENT
1. The authority citation for part 315 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 5 U.S.C. 1302, 3301, 3302; E.O. 10577, 3 CFR 1954-
1958 Comp., page 218, unless otherwise noted.
Secs. 315.601 and 315.609 also issued under 22 U.S.C. 3651 and
3652.
Secs. 315.602 and 315.604 also issued under 5 U.S.C. 1104.
Sec. 315.603 also issued under 5 U.S.C. 8151.
Sec. 315.605 also issued under E.O. 12034, 3 CFR, 1978 Comp., p.
111.
Sec. 315.606 also issued under E.O. 11219, 3 CFR, 1964-1965
Comp., p. 303.
Sec. 315.607 also issued under 22 U.S.C. 2506.
Sec. 315.608 also issued under E.O. 12721, 3 CFR, 1990 Comp., p.
293.
Sec. 315.610 also issued under 5 U.S.C. 3304(d).
Sec. 315.710 also issued under E.O. 12596, 3 CFR, 1987 Comp., p.
229.
Subpart I also issued under 5 U.S.C. 3321, E.O. 12107, 3 CFR,
1978 Comp., p. 264.
2. Section 315.608 is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 315.608 Noncompetitive appointment of certain former overseas
employees.
(a) An executive branch agency may noncompetitively appoint, to a
competitive service position within the United States (including Guam,
Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) an individual who has completed 52
weeks of creditable overseas service as defined in paragraph (b) of
this section and is appointed within the time limits in paragraph (d)
of this section. Any law, Executive order, or regulation that
disqualifies an applicant for appointment, such as the citizenship
requirement, also disqualifies the applicant for appointment under this
section.
(1) Tenure. A person appointed under this section becomes a career-
conditional employee unless he or she has already satisfied the
requirements for career tenure or is exempt from the service
requirements in 5 CFR 315.201.
(2) Competitive status. A person appointed under this section
acquires competitive status automatically upon completion of probation.
(b) Creditable overseas service for purposes of this section only,
is service in an appropriated fund position(s) performed by a family
member under a local hire appointment(s) overseas:
(1) During the time the family member was accompanying a sponsor
officially assigned to an overseas area; and
(2) For which the family member received a fully successful or
better (or equivalent) performance rating.
(3) Computation of creditable overseas service is in accordance
with the service computation procedures in the Guide to Processing
Personnel Actions. Leave without pay (LWOP) taken during the time an
individual is in the overseas area is credited on the same basis as
time worked.
(c) Exception. Up to 26 weeks of the 52-week service requirement is
waived when the head of an agency (or designee) that employed the
family member overseas certifies that the family member's expected 52
weeks of employment were cut short because of a nonpersonal situation
that necessitated the relocation of the family member from the overseas
area. For this purpose, a nonpersonal situation includes disaster,
conflict, terrorism or the threat of terrorism, and the deployment of
the family member's sponsor from the overseas area. A nonpersonal
situation does not include circumstances that specifically relate to a
particular individual, for example, ill health or personal interest in
relocating.
(d) An individual is eligible for appointment(s) under this
authority only within 3 years of returning from overseas to the United
States to resume residence. The hiring agency may extend an
individual's appointment eligibility beyond 3 years for periods
equivalent to--
(1) The time the individual was accompanying a sponsor on official
assignment to an area of the United States with no significant
opportunities for Federal employment as determined by the hiring
agency; or
(2) The time the hiring agency determines an eligible individual
was incapacitated for employment.
(e) Definitions. In this section--
(1) Family member. An unmarried child under age 23 or a spouse.
(2) Sponsor. A Federal civilian employee, a Federal nonappropriated
fund employee, or a member of a uniformed service who is officially
assigned to an overseas area.
(i) Officially assigned. Under active orders issued by the United
States Government.
(ii) Federal civilian employee. An employee of the executive,
judicial, or legislative branch of the United States Government who
serves in an appropriated fund position.
(iii) Nonappropriated fund employee. An employee paid from
nonappropriated funds of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Navy
Ship's Stores Ashore, Navy Exchanges, Marine Corps Exchanges, Coast
Guard Exchanges, or other instrumentalities of the United States.
(iv) Member of a uniformed service. Personnel of the U.S. Armed
Forces (including the Coast Guard), the commissioned corps of the
Public Health Service, and the commissioned corps of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(3) Accompanying. The family member resided in the overseas area
while the sponsor was officially assigned to an overseas post of duty.
The family member need not have physically resided with the sponsor at
all times or have traveled with the sponsor to or from the overseas
area.
(4) Local hire appointment. An appointment that is not actually or
potentially permanent and that is made from among individuals residing
in the overseas area. In this section only, a local hire appointment
includes nonpermanent employment under:
(i) Overseas limited appointment under 5 CFR 301.203(b) or (c);
(ii) Excepted appointment under Schedule A 213.3106(b)(1),
213.3106(b)(6), or 213.3106(d)(1)) when the duration of the appointment
is tied to the sponsor's rotation date or when the appointment is made
on a not-to-exceed (NTE) basis;
(iii) An ``American family member'' or ``part-time intermittent
temporary (PIT)'' appointment in U.S. diplomatic establishments;
[[Page 43726]]
(iv) 50 U.S.C. 403j; Public Law 86-36 (50 U.S.C. 403, note); the
Berlin Tariff Agreement; or as a local national employee paid from
appropriated funds; or
(v) Any other nonpermanent appointment in the competitive or
excepted service approved by OPM.
(5) Overseas. A location outside: the 50 States of the United
States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin
Islands.
(6) Qualified. Meeting all qualification requirements for a
position in the United States, except that an agency may waive any
requirement for a written test after determining that the duties and
responsibilities of the applicant's overseas position were similar
enough to make the written test unnecessary.
[FR Doc. 95-20881 Filed 8-22-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6325-01-M