House Approves Overtime Pay for Secret Service Agents
All agents with outstanding overtime to receive additional compensation for record hours worked in 2016
Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6302, the Overtime Pay for Secret Service Agents Act of 2016, sponsored by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). The bill allows agents of the United States Secret Service (USSS) to receive additional overtime premium pay.
Secret Service agents are subject to a Title 5 statutory cap on their biweekly pay. As a result, agents were not compensated for overtime hours worked that would have resulted in compensation above the cap during any pay period.H.R. 6302 offers relief to agents who worked record numbers of hours during the presidential election season yet did not receive pay due to the cap.The bill appropriately limits pay to the 2016 presidential election year to encourage USSS to fix its current staffing problems instead of relying on excessive and expensive overtime in the future.
Watch Chairman Chaffetz discuss the bill on the House floor:
Background:
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The Committee held a hearing on November 15, 2016 to examine allegations that USSS agents were not receiving compensation for overtime hours.
- A 2015 Committee report found that the USSS was experiencing a staffing crisis that threatened to jeopardize its critical mission.
- USSS has been implementing reforms but remains plagued by low staffing levels, high attrition rates, and an inability to compensate for overtime worked on protective missions.