This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains regulatory documents having general

applicability and legal effect, most of which

are keyed to and codified in the Code of

Federal Regulations, which is published under

50 titles pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 1510.

The Code of Federal Regulations is sold by

the Superintendent of Documents. Prices of

new books are listed in the first FEDERAL

REGISTER issue of each week.

Rules and Regulations Federal Register

49307 

Vol. 74, No. 186 

Monday, September 28, 2009 

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL 

MANAGEMENT 

5 CFR Part 531 

RIN 3206–AL96 

General Schedule Locality Pay Areas 

AGENCY: U.S. Office of Personnel 

Management. 

ACTION: Interim rule with request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: On behalf of the President’s 

Pay Agent, the U.S. Office of Personnel 

Management is issuing interim 

regulations on the locality pay program 

for General Schedule employees. The 

interim regulations move the McGuire 

Air Force Base, NJ, and Fort Dix, NJ, 

Philadelphia locality pay area portions 

of the new Joint Base McGuire-DixLakehurst, from the Philadelphia 

locality pay area to the New York 

locality pay area. 

DATES: Effective Date: The regulations 

are effective October 28, 2009. 

Applicability Date: The regulations 

apply on the first day of the first pay 

period beginning on or after the date of 

publication in the Federal Register, but 

no earlier than the first day of the first 

pay period beginning on or after October 

1, 2009. 

Comment Date: We must receive 

comments on or before November 27, 

2009. 

ADDRESSES: Send or deliver comments 

to Charles D. Grimes III, Deputy 

Associate Director for Performance and 

Pay Systems, Office of Personnel 

Management, Room 7H31, 1900 E 

Street, NW., Washington, DC 20415– 

8200; Fax: (202) 606–4264; or e-mail: 

pay-performance-policy@opm.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Allan Hearne, (202) 606–2838; Fax: 

(202) 606–4264; e-mail: payperformance-policy@opm.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 

5304 of title 5, United States Code, 

authorizes locality pay for General 

Schedule (GS) employees with duty 

stations in the 48 contiguous United 

States and the District of Columbia. 

Section 5304(f) of title 5, United 

States Code, authorizes the President’s 

Pay Agent (the Secretary of Labor, the 

Director of the Office of Management 

and Budget, and the Director of the 

Office of Personnel Management) to 

determine locality pay areas. The 

boundaries of locality pay areas must be 

based on appropriate factors, which may 

include local labor market patterns, 

commuting patterns, and the practices 

of other employers. The Pay Agent must 

give thorough consideration to the 

views and recommendations of the 

Federal Salary Council, a body 

composed of experts in the fields of 

labor relations and pay policy and 

representatives of Federal employee 

organizations. The President appoints 

the members of the Council, which 

submits annual recommendations to the 

Pay Agent about the locality pay 

program. 

Most locality pay areas follow county 

lines under the methods recommended 

by the Council and adopted by the Pay 

Agent. However, exceptions are made 

for Federal facilities that cross county 

borders under the following criteria: 

Æ For Federal facilities that cross 

locality pay area boundaries: To be 

included in an adjacent locality pay 

area, the whole facility must have at 

least 500 GS employees, with the 

majority of those employees in the 

higher-paying locality pay area, or that 

portion of a Federal facility outside of 

a higher-paying locality pay area must 

have at least 750 GS employees, the 

duty stations of the majority of those 

employees must be within 10 miles of 

the separate locality pay area, and a 

significant number of those employees 

must commute to work from the higherpaying locality pay area. 

See 2005 Annual Report on General 

Schedule Locality-Based Comparability 

Payments, p. 13 at http://www.opm.gov/ 

oca/payagent/2005/ 

2005PayAgentReport.pdf. 

We presently have two exceptions 

under these criteria; all of Edwards Air 

Force Base, CA, is included in the Los 

Angeles locality pay area, and all of the 

Federal Prison at Butner, NC, is 

included in the Raleigh locality pay 

area. 

As part of the base realignment and 

closure process, the Department of 

Defense is required to establish Joint 

Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and will 

do so effective October 1, 2009. 

Presently, McGuire AFB and Fort Dix, 

in Burlington County, are in the 

Philadelphia locality pay area while 

Lakehurst, in Ocean County, is in the 

New York locality pay area. The new 

joint base commander wrote to the 

Federal Salary Council requesting that 

all employees on the joint base be 

included in the higher paying New York 

locality pay area. As justification for this 

proposal, the base commander noted 

that (1) 49 percent of employees at 

McGuire AFB and Fort Dix commute 

from the New York locality pay area, (2) 

the work locations of the majority of 

those employees are within 10 miles of 

the New York locality pay area, (3) 

McGuire AFB and Fort Dix have higher 

vacancy rates than found at Lakehurst, 

and (4) ‘‘[T]o effectively and efficiently 

provide installation management, the 

joint base commander must be able to 

move and/or consolidate civilian 

employees * * * as needed, without 

impacting employees pay’’. 

Since the McGuire AFB and Fort Dix 

portions of Joint Base McGuire-DixLakehurst outside of the New York 

locality pay area have more than 750 GS 

employees, with the duty stations of the 

majority of those employees within 10 

miles of the New York locality pay area, 

and a significant proportion of those 

employees commute from the New York 

locality pay area, the President’s Pay 

Agent concludes the joint base meets 

the Council’s existing criteria to be 

included in the New York locality pay 

area. This interim rule implements the 

change in pay areas effective with the 

first pay period beginning on or after the 

date of publication in the Federal 

Register, but no earlier than the first day 

of the first pay period beginning on or 

after October 1, 2009. Because the 

Federal Salary Council will not be able 

to meet until after October 1, 2009, we 

will discuss this matter with the 

Council and hear their views when the 

Council holds its next public meeting. 

In the meantime, we see no reason to 

delay the regulatory process needed to 

implement this change. 


CPrice-Sewell on DSKGBLS3C1PROD with RULES
49308 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 186 / Monday, September 28, 2009 / Rules and Regulations 

1 Division B—REAL ID Act of 2005, the 

Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for 

Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami 

Relief, 2005, Public Law 109–13m 119 Stat. 231, 

302 (May 11, 2005) (codified at 49 U.S.C. 30301 

note). 

Impact and Implementation 

The change in the coverage of the 

New York locality pay area will affect 

about 2,300 Federal white-collar 

employees of the Department of Justice, 

the Department of Defense, and the 

Department of Veterans Affairs 

stationed at McGuire AFB or Fort Dix, 

at an annual cost of about $8 million. 

Waiver of Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking 

Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(3)(B), I 

find that good cause exists for waiving 

the general notice of proposed 

rulemaking. Also pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 

553(d)(3), I find that good cause exists 

for making this rule effective in less 

than 30 days. This notice is being 

waived and the regulation is being made 

effective in less than 30 days because 

the joint base goes into effect on October 

1, 2009, and it will have an undesirable 

effect on base management to delay the 

implementation of a common locality 

pay rate for all employees on the base. 

E.O. 12866, Regulatory Review 

The Office of Management and Budget 

has reviewed this rule in accordance 

with E.O. 12866. 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

This document does not contain 

proposed information collection 

requirements subject to the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104– 

13. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act 

I certify that these regulations will not 

have a significant economic impact on 

a substantial number of small entities 

because they will apply only to Federal 

agencies and employees. 

List of Subjects in 5 CFR Part 531 

Government employees, Law 

enforcement officers, Wages. 

John Berry, 

Director, U.S. Office of Personnel 

Management. 

■ Accordingly, OPM amends 5 CFR part 

531 as follows: 

PART 531—PAY UNDER THE 

GENERAL SCHEDULE 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 531 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 5115, 5307, and 5338; 

sec. 4 of Public Law 103–89, 107 Stat. 981; 

and E.O. 12748, 56 FR 4521, 3 CFR, 1991 

Comp., p. 316; Subpart B also issued under 

5 U.S.C. 5303(g), 5305, 5333, 5334(a) and (b), 

and 7701(b)(2); Subpart D also issued under 

5 U.S.C. 5335 and 7701(b)(2); Subpart E also 

issued under 5 U.S.C. 5336; Subpart F also 

issued under 5 U.S.C. 5304 and 5305; E.O. 

12883, 58 FR 63281, 3 CFR, 1993 Comp., p. 

682; and E.O. 13106, 63 FR 68151, 3 CFR, 

1998 Comp., p. 224. 

Subpart F—Locality-Based 

Comparability Payments 

■ 2. In § 531.603, paragraph (b)(20) is 

revised to read as follows: 

§ 531.603 Locality pay areas. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(20) New York-Newark-Bridgeport, 

NY-NJ-CT-PA—consisting of the New 

York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA 

CSA, plus Monroe County, PA, Warren 

County, NJ, and all of Joint Base 

McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst; 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. E9–23359 Filed 9–25–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6325–39–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Office of the Secretary 

6 CFR Part 37 

[Docket No. DHS–2006–0030] 

RIN 1601–AA37 

Minimum Standards for Driver’s 

Licenses and Identification Cards 

Acceptable by Federal Agencies for 

Official Purposes 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, DHS. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Department of 

Homeland Security’s REAL ID 

regulations, States seeking an extension 

of the date by which they must begin to 

comply with REAL ID requirements 

currently must submit a request for 

extension by October 11, 2009. This 

final rule changes that date to December 

1, 2009. 

DATES: This rule is effective September 

28, 2009. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Steve Kozar, Office of State-Issued 

Identification Support, Screening 

Coordination Office, Department of 

Homeland Security, Washington, DC 

20528 (202) 447–3368. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Analysis of This Final Rule 

The REAL ID Act of 2005 (the Act) 1

prohibits Federal agencies, effective 

May 11, 2008, from accepting a driver’s 

license or personal identification card 

for any official purpose unless the 

license or card has been issued by a 

State that is meeting the requirements 

set forth in the Act. The Act sets forth 

certain minimum standards applicable 

to the driver’s license issuance process. 

Section 205(b) of the REAL ID Act 

authorizes the Secretary of Homeland 

Security to grant States extensions of 

time to meet the requirements of the Act 

if the State provides adequate 

justification for noncompliance. 

On January 29, 2008, DHS 

promulgated a final rule implementing 

the requirements of the Act. See 73 FR 

5272; also 6 CFR part 37. The final rule, 

pursuant to the Secretary’s authority 

under § 205(b) of the REAL ID Act, 

extended the original compliance date 

from May 11, 2008 to January 1, 2010, 

for each State that timely filed a request 

for extension. All States timely filed the 

required requests for extensions and 

were granted an extension of the 

compliance date. The final rule further 

provided that any State requiring an 

extension of the compliance date must 

submit a request for such an extension 

to DHS no later than October 11, 2009, 

and include with that submission a 

material compliance checklist 

demonstrating that the State has met 

certain compliance milestones. See 6 

CFR 37.63. 

DHS has determined that additional 

time is warranted for States to submit a 

request for an additional extension. 

Accordingly, under this final rule, DHS 

is revising the regulatory text at 6 CFR 

37.63(b) to change the deadline by 

which States must file a request for an 

extension of the compliance date from 

October 11, 2009 to December 1, 2009. 

II. Regulatory Analyses 

A. Administrative Procedure Act 

This final rule addresses requirements 

that are procedural in nature. This rule 

does not change the January 1, 2010 

compliance date—the date by which 

States must begin to issue licenses and 

identification cards that are in 

compliance with the standards and 

requirements under the REAL ID Act 

and regulations—but merely changes 

the date by which States may seek a 

further extension of that deadline. This 

rule, therefore, does not alter the 

substantive rights of, nor impose new 

requirements on, any State or 

individual. This final rule, therefore, is 

exempt from notice and comment 

requirements under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A). 

For the same reason, under 5 U.S.C. 

553(d)(3), this rule is effective 


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