U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

1 

49–010 

" ! SENATE 109TH CONGRESS

1st Session 

REPORT

2005

109–158 

PROVIDING FOR THE PARTICIPATION OF 

EMPLOYEES IN THE JUDICIAL BRANCH 

IN THE FEDERAL LEAVE TRANSFER PROGRAM FOR DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES 

R E P O R T 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

to accompany 

S. 1736 

PROVIDING FOR THE PARTICIPATION OF EMPLOYEES IN THE JUDICIAL BRANCH IN THE FEDERAL LEAVE TRANSFER PROGRAM 

FOR DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES 

OCTOBER 20, 2005.—Ordered to be printed 


E:\Seals\Congress.#13
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine, Chairman 

TED STEVENS, Alaska 

GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio 

NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

LINCOLN D. CHAFEE, Rhode Island 

ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah 

PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico 

JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia 

JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

MARK DAYTON, Minnesota 

FRANK LAUTENBERG, New Jersey 

MARK PRYOR, Arkansas 

MICHAEL D. BOPP, Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

JENNIFER A. HEMINGWAY, Professional Staff Member 

JOYCE A. RECHTSCHAFFEN, Minority Staff Director and Counsel 

LAWRENCE B. NOVEY, Minority Counsel 

TRINA D. TYRER, Chief Clerk 

109TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! SENATE 1st Session 109–158 

PROVIDING FOR THE PARTICIPATION OF EMPLOYEES IN THE JUDICIAL 

BRANCH IN THE FEDERAL LEAVE TRANSFER PROGRAM FOR DISASTERS 

AND EMERGENCIES 

OCTOBER 20, 2005.—Ordered to be printed 

Ms. COLLINS, from the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs, submitted the following 

R E P O R T 

[To accompany S. 1736] 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

to which was referred the bill (S. 1736) to provide for the participation of employees in the judicial branch in the Federal leave transfer program for disasters and emergencies, having considered the 

same, reports favorably thereon without amendments and recommends that the bill do pass. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

I. Purpose and Summary .................................................................................. 1 

II. Background .................................................................................................... 2 

III. Legislative History ......................................................................................... 3 

IV. Section-by-Section Analysis .......................................................................... 3 

V. Estimated Cost of Legislation ....................................................................... 4 

VI. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact .................................................................. 5 

VII. Changes in Existing Law .............................................................................. 5 

I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

The purpose of S. 1736 is to provide for the participation of judicial branch employees in the emergency leave transfer program for 

major disasters and emergencies, including natural disasters and 

emergency situations such as those caused by Hurricanes Katrina 

and Rita. 

2 

1Public Law No. 100–566. 2Public Law No. 103–103. 3Public Law No.102–25. 4Public Law No. 105–18. 

II. BACKGROUND

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMERGENCY LEAVE TRANSFER PROGRAM

In 1988, Congress authorized a five-year test of voluntary leave 

transfer and leave bank programs within federal agencies.1 The 

voluntary leave programs were designed to help employees faced 

with a medical or family emergency who had already exhausted all 

available leave. The leave transfer pilot program allowed employees to donate their leave directly to other federal employees and 

the leave bank pilot program allowed employees to donate their annual leave to a leave bank, for use by any member of the bank 

stricken by a medical emergency. The five-year demonstration 

projects were deemed successful and were subsequently made permanent in 1994.2

In 1991, Congress created a special leave bank under which federal employees could donate leave for use by their fellow employees 

who, as members of the Armed Forces reserves, had been called to 

active duty and would benefit from donated leave upon their return.3

In 1997, legislation was enacted to create a permanent emergency leave transfer program for federal employees.4 Under this 

legislation, the new program applied generally to executive branch 

agencies and to the Government Accountability Office. The legislation built upon special procedures that were developed to assist 

federal employees in the wake of the bombing of the Alfred P. 

Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 

19, 1995. The special procedures that were developed as part of the 

emergency leave transfer program after the Oklahoma City bombing did not require employees to exhaust all available existing 

leave before receiving donations of annual leave for their fellow employees. 

ADMINISTRATION OF THE EMERGENCY LEAVE TRANSFER PROGRAM

In the event of major disasters or emergencies declared by the 

President that result in adverse effects for a substantial number of 

federal employees, the President may direct the Office of Personnel 

Management (OPM) to establish an emergency leave transfer program. Once an emergency leave transfer program is in place, employees in executive branch agencies (and the Government Accountability Office) may voluntarily donate annual leave for transfer to employees of his or her agency. Leave may be donated to approved recipients who, as a result of the major disaster or emergency, have been adversely affected to such a degree that the employee’s absence from work is required. In addition, an employee 

who has a family member who has been adversely affected by a 

disaster or emergency and who does not have reasonable access to 

other forms of assistance may receive donated leave under the 

emergency leave transfer program. An employee is not required to 

exhaust other available leave before receiving donated leave under 

the emergency leave transfer program. Employees may not receive 

3 

5 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments 

and Agencies: Emergency Leave Transfer for Federal Employees Affected by Hurricane Katrina, 

from Linda M. Springer, Director, Sept. 2, 2005. 

more than 240 hours of donated annual leave at any one time from 

an emergency leave transfer program. 

When a federal agency notifies OPM that the amount of annual 

leave donated by its employees is not sufficient to meet the needs 

of its approved emergency leave recipients, OPM has the authority 

to coordinate an inter-agency transfer of annual leave from donating agencies to affected agencies. Since the creation of the program, 

inter-agency transfers have not been necessary as agencies have 

met their need for emergency leave transfers internally. 

NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION

On September 2, 2005, the President authorized OPM to establish an emergency leave transfer program for employees affected by 

Hurricane Katrina.5 The Judicial Conference of the United States 

subsequently requested legislative authority in order to provide the 

judicial branch with the same flexibility and authority available to 

the executive branch. The judicial branch has an existing voluntary 

leave bank program and has donated leave to the executive branch. 

Most judicial branch employees affected by Hurricane Katrina 

have been granted excused absences to cope with the immediate 

aftermath of the emergency. The weather-related administrative 

absences will be curtailed as the circuits and districts affected by 

Hurricane Katrina slowly resume operations. S. 1736 will ensure 

an emergency leave transfer program is in place to assist approved 

judicial branch leave recipients as their need for donated leave increases when the affected courts resume operations and many of 

the employees who evacuated in response to Hurricane Katrina remain unable to return to work. 

The Judicial Conference of the United States estimates several 

hundred judicial branch employees could potentially benefit immediately from the emergency leave transfer program. The Committee 

is hopeful that Congress will enact the requisite authority so that 

the Judicial Conference can work with OPM to implement the necessary procedures immediately before the judiciary’s existing leave 

policies are no longer sufficient to meet the needs of the employees 

in the circuits and districts affected by Hurricane Katrina. 

III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

S. 1736 was introduced on September 20, 2005, and was referred 

to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. 

The legislation is sponsored by Senators Collins, Lieberman, 

Voinovich, Akaka, Landrieu, and Vitter. On September 22, 2005, 

the Committee considered S. 1736 and ordered the bill favorably 

reported without amendment by voice vote. Members present were 

Senators Collins, Voinovich, Coleman, Chafee, Lieberman, Levin, 

Akaka, Lautenberg, and Pryor. 

IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1 amends section 6391 of title 5, United States Code, to 

require that the Office of Personnel Management provide for the 

participation of judicial branch employees in any emergency leave 

4 

transfer program established after a Presidential declaration of a 

major disaster or emergency. The section requires the Office of Personnel Management to consult with the Administrative Office of 

the Courts in establishing procedures to facilitate participation of 

judicial branch employees. 

V. ESTIMATED COST OF LEGISLATION

S. 1736—A bill to provide for the participation of employees in the 

judicial branch in the federal leave program for disasters and 

emergencies 

S. 1736 would provide for the participation of employees of the 

judicial branch in the federal emergency leave transfer program. 

CBO estimates that the legislation would have no significant budgetary impact. Enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or 

revenues. S. 1736 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 

mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and 

would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments. 

Under current law, judicial branch employees are allowed to donate annual leave through a leave bank to co-workers who have exhausted their annual and sick leave as a result of a personal or 

family medical emergency. Any unused donated annual leave is returned to the leave bank. Emergency leave transfer programs within the executive branch also allow employees to donate annual 

leave to be transferred to employees of their own agency or other 

agencies in the event of a major disaster or emergency declared by 

the President. However, unlike the leave bank program, any unused annual leave donated to the emergency leave transfer program is returned to the donor. 

S. 1736 would provide the judicial branch with the same emergency leave transfer authority as the executive branch. The cost of 

expanding this authority to the judicial branch would depend upon 

the number of times a major disaster or emergency occurs that results in a Presidential request for a special leave program and 

whether the leave donated would have been donated under current 

law. 

Since 1997, emergency leave transfer authority has been used for 

the executive branch three times. It was used after the African Embassy bombings in 1998, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 

2001, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Most of 

the leave donations after the first two events were returned to 

their donors. 

According to the Administrative Office of the United States 

Courts, about 400 displaced judicial branch employees have been 

on paid administrative leave for an indeterminate amount of time 

since hurricane Katrina struck. CBO expects that any annual leave 

donations made under S. 1736 would largely be annual leave that 

would otherwise be donated for medical emergencies. Thus, we expect that enacting S. 1736 would not have a significant cost. 

The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Matthew Pickford 

and Gregory Waring. This estimate was approved by Peter H. 

Fontaine, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. 

5 

VI. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of 

the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has considered 

the regulatory impact of this bill. The Congressional Budget Office 

states that there are no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and no 

costs on state, local or tribal governments. The legislation contains 

no other regulatory impact. 

VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the Standing 

Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by the bill, as 

reported, are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted 

is enclosed in black brackets, new matter is printed in italic and 

existing law, in which no change is proposed, is shown in roman): 

TITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE 

GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION AND 

EMPLOYEES 

PART III—EMPLOYEES 

Subpart E—Attendance and Leave 

CHAPTER 63—LEAVE 

Subchapter VI—Leave Transfer in Disasters and 

Emergencies 

SEC. 6391. AUTHORITY FOR LEAVE TRANSFER PROGRAM IN DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES. 

* * * * * * * 

(e) Except to the extent that the Office may prescribe by regulation, nothing in section 7351 shall apply to any solicitation, donation, or acceptance of leave under this section. 

(f) After consultation with the Administrative Office of the United 

States Courts, the Office of Personnel Management shall provide for 

the participation of employees in the judicial branch in any emergency leave transfer program under this section. 

ø(f)¿ (g) The Office shall prescribe regulations necessary for the 

administration of this section. 

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