USDANEWS VOLUME 58 NO.1 - JANUARY 1999
by Ron Hall, Office of Communications
If your “things to do” list for FY 1999 included the item “apply for a buyout,” then you can scratch that off your list. USDA is not offering buyouts for employees for this fiscal year.
In a memorandum signed by Office of Human Resources Management Deputy Director Bob Whiting, titled “Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments, Fiscal Year (FY) 1999," dated December 30, 1998, and sent to Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Jim Lyons and Under Secretary for Rural Development Jill Long Thompson--the only under secretaries who ultimately had formally requested buyout authority--Whiting explained the decision and recounted the circumstances leading up to it.
He noted that USDA’s mission areas and staff offices were asked last August to assess their potential needs for a buyout for FY99 and then to provide a plan outlining their projected use of one. But they were reminded that agencies would be required to take one “full-time equivalent,” or FTE, reduction for each buyout--in other words, the same “one-for-one” staff year loss that had been the pattern for the Department’s previous buyouts in FY98, FY97, and FY94-95.
That “one-for-one” reduction would be taken from an agency’s FTE count as it stood on September 30, 1998--the end of FY98. However, Whiting advised in his memo, on that date USDA was “substantially below its authorized FTE ceiling for FY 1998.”
“Therefore,” he continued, “if USDA offered any buyouts the Office of Management and Budget would require USDA to relinquish all of the unfilled FY 1998 FTE’s.”
“Although we understand and supported agencies’ need for this authority the Secretary [Dan Glickman] has determined that USDA, as a whole, cannot afford the reduction in unfilled FTE’s.”
“Therefore,” Whiting concluded in his memo, “the buyout authority will not be available for use in USDA Mission Areas and agencies in FY 1999.”
OHRM personnel management specialist John Robertson, who coordinates USDA's buyout program, elaborated that an unfilled FTE ceiling normally provides the Department with the ability to address shifting priorities and offer new recruitment opportunities.
"But this year," he advised, "if even one buyout is offered anywhere in USDA, those opportunities would be lost."
"During our previous buyouts," he added, "budget constraints have prevented this from even becoming an issue because we didn't have the money to fill any of those vacant slots."
Robertson pointed out that in the past five years USDA has reduced employment significantly. "However, the Department now finds itself with limited slots, and it is critical that we protect every one of them."
"Further reductions," he emphasized, "could negatively impact on our ability to perform our mission."
"It is unfortunate," Robertson acknowledged, "that this results in no use of the buyout authority this year for those agencies which had requested one--but in the long run this will ensure that we maintain the workforce necessary to carry out our mission."
First participation
According to Charles Warrick, director of OHRM's Compensation and
Employment Division, USDA’s first participation in a buyout came during a
buyout time frame of March 31, 1994 to March 31, 1995. During that time, 5,786
buyouts were taken by USDA's federal (non-county) employees.
Then, as part of USDA’s budget for FY 1997, Congress authorized a four-year buyout plan for the Department, to run from FY 1997 through FY 2000. “That authorization was just that: an authorization--not a requirement for the Department or an entitlement for the employee,” Robertson noted.
During the first year of that four-year buyout plan, USDA projected that approximately 3,750 federal employees would take buyouts during FY97. 994 federal employees ultimately took buyouts during that time frame.
During the second year of the plan, USDA projected that approximately 2,838 federal employees would take buyouts during FY98. 1,463 federal employees ultimately took buyouts during FY98. The November-December 1997 issue of the USDA News carried a story about that buyout.
In addition to the above statistics, 376 county (non-federal) employees took buyouts during FY94-95, 694 during FY97, and 334 during FY98, for a total of 1,404 county (non-federal) employees during USDA's three previous buyout offerings.
He said that, if there had been a buyout in FY99--the third year of the authorized four-year buyout--the Department projected that 285 federal employees would take buyouts.
Robertson noted that a total of 8,243 federal (non-county) employees have taken buyouts at the Department thus far, during the three previous buyout offerings. That includes 4,772 (57.9 percent) non-minority males, 2,514 (30.5 percent) non-minority females, 509 (6.2 percent) minority males, and 448 (5.4 percent) minority females.
"USDA's use of its buyout authority for FY 2000--the final year of our authorized four-year buyout--will be reviewed sometime this August," he advised.
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