[USDA and Interior Employees' Claims for Relocation Expenses]

The Departments of Agriculture and Interior requested decisions regarding the authority of federal agencies to pay relocation expenses to employees whom the agencies reemployed following periods of separation from government service during which they received disability compensation. GAO held that: (1) eligibility for relocation expenses required transfer from one permanent duty station to another, transfer in the interest of the government, and continuous service; (2) regulations mandated that agencies treat reemployed disabled employees as though they never left federal employment; (3) one employee was entitled to reimbursement for relocation expenses where he was reemployed at a different location from his duty station at the date of separation, since it was as if he transferred to a new duty station without a break in service; and (4) there was no authority to reimburse the other employee's relocation expenses where he relocated his residence back to his former duty station. Accordingly, one claim was allowed and the other claim was denied, and GAO recommended that Congress authorize normal relocation expenses to the denied employee as a meritorious claim, since: (1) the employee had performed valuable services for the government; and (2) his acceptance of the new position reduced or eliminated his disability compensation payments.