Bush Wants Management Changes

The Bush administration wants federal managers to have greater flexibility in the way they recruit and retain employees and use worker buyouts.

The Managerial Flexibility Act, which Bush submitted to Congress Oct. 15, is part of an administration initiative called Freedom to Manage.

Provisions include allowing managers to offer their workers buyouts of up to $25,000 as a means of restructuring the work force. Rather than using buyouts and early retirement options only for downsizing, the bill would let agencies trim one area in order to build up another, such as IT employment.

Federal managers would have more flexibility to set special salary rates and give bonuses for recruitment, retention and relocation, as well as to pay education costs.

The idea behind the change is to treat senior executives more like their private-sector counterparts, according to a summary of the legislation issued by the Office of Management and Budget.