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Employment of OMHAR Staff at HUD Following Their Employment at OMHAR

GAO-03-703R Published: Jun 30, 2003. Publicly Released: Jun 30, 2003.
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Highlights

To reduce the estimated multibillion-dollar costs to the federal government of renewing rental subsidy contracts while helping preserve available and affordable low-income rental housing, Congress passed the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and Affordability Act of 1997 (Act), which established the "mark-to market" program to restructure the contracts. The Act also created the Office of Multifamily Housing Assistance Restructuring (OMHAR) as a temporary organization within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer the contract-restructuring program. With OMHAR scheduled to "sunset" (cease operations) on September 30, 2001, the Subcommittee on Housing and Transportation, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, held a hearing in June 2001 to determine whether it would be more advantageous to the federal government to extend rather than end the program. Subsequently, Congress extended the sunset date to September 30, 2004, with restructuring work at HUD continuing until 2006. To ensure that OMHAR could attract and retain staff with requisite expertise in multifamily housing finance issues, the Act provided the Director of OMHAR authority to pay salaries comparable with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. As a result, OMHAR salaries are generally higher than those paid for most federal positions. OMHAR is staffed in part by former HUD employees, and also by former employees of other federal agencies and the private sector. GAO agreed to (1) describe what information HUD and OMHAR officials provided regarding OMHAR staff employment at HUD following their employment at OMHAR; (2) describe how HUD determined to which OMHAR employees it would offer employment and what their pay levels would be; and (3) determine, for eligible OMHAR employees, how accepting HUD's offer would affect their pay.

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CompensationData collectionEmploymentReemploymentFederal agency reorganizationStrategic planningReemployment rightsHousingFederal employeesMortgage market