Consideration of S. 2563

GAO urged favorable consideration of proposed legislation which would limit certain entitlements and allowances received by Federal employees in U.S. areas outside the conterminous 48 States. Essentially, the bill would eliminate the free vacation travel that agencies are required to give certain employees and their families overseas. It is no longer a useful incentive to recruit or retain trained personnel by returning them to their former homes from their overseas locations every 2 or 3 years, since most of these areas are no longer isolated or arduous. Agencies would still have the flexibility to offer the benefit when it became actually necessary to recruit employees to serve at hardship stations.