Political Quotes

“Under the current civil service system, agencies are limited in the extent to which they can reward employees for their performance, in the way they can recognize excellent performance. In the current system, employees at lower levels of their employment grade can receive quality step increases limited to about 3 percent of their annual salary, and they can only receive one a year regardless of how well they perform in their job. The Human Capital Performance Fund would allow agencies to reward their top-performing employees with a pay raise, a pay raise that they deserve, that they have worked for and earned, but would never receive under the current guidelines. It is important to clarify, however, that the funds in the Human Capital Performance Fund are in addition to across-the-board pay raises and periodic within-grade step increases that Federal workers already receive. This is not an attempt to gouge Federal employee pay raises, and this is not an attempt to circumvent the existing system. It is an attempt to integrate performance incentives into a civil service system that was developed many decades ago. I urge support for this amendment.”