Introduction of the District of Columbia National Guard Federal Employee Leave Fairness Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia National Guard Federal Employee Leave Fairness Act, which would prohibit the Department of Defense (DOD) from recouping pay from District of Columbia National Guard (DCNG) members who are federal civilian employees or District of Columbia employees and took encampment leave. The DOD claims these employees were not entitled to encampment leave without a loss of pay. While I disagree with the DOD's interpretation, I am introducing this bill to resolve this matter.
Congress partially addressed this matter in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (NDAA) by adopting my amendment that effectively prohibited the DOD from recouping pay for encampment leave taken by DCNG members after the enactment of the NDAA. That amendment, however, did not apply to encampment leave taken before the enactment of the NDAA because of budget rules.
In 1899, Congress codified in the D.C. Code the original authority for entitlement to leave when federal civilian employees were mobilized by the DCNG. In 1968, that authority was moved into 5 U.S.C. Sec. 6323. In that same year, Congress authorized two additional leave entitlements in 5 U.S.C. Sec. 6323, as well as established a salary offset provision in 5 U.S.C. Sec. 5519 referencing those two additional leave entitlements. However, because the U.S. Code had not been updated to include the earlier DCNG authority, the U.S. Code contained a duplicate subsection, one referring to DCNG mobilizations and one to a general leave entitlement for the National Guard and Reserves.
Based on this legislative drafting error, the DOD has sometimes attempted to apply a salary offset to DCNG members who are federal employees and took encampment leave, and the DOD has indicated it will do so again soon. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), has said that 5 U.S.C. Sec. 6323(c) was not intended to be subject to a salary offset under 5 U.S.C. Sec. 5519 and noted in 1990 that the ``[Office of Personnel Management] advised that it now believes that the salary offset provisions of 5 U.S.C. Sec. 5519 do not apply to D.C. National Guardsmen under the circumstances described in 5 U.S.C. Sec. 6323(c).'' However, the Office of Personnel Management once again believes that the salary offset provisions of 5 U.S.C. Sec. 5519 apply to 5 U.S.C. Sec. 6323(c).
DCNG members sincerely believed that they were taking this leave correctly, they have relied on this money, the recoupment will cause financial hardships for current and former DCNG members and it was Congress' intent that DCNG members were entitled to this leave without a salary offset.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
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