RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD 

FISCAL YEAR 2019 

BUDGET SUBMISSION 
SEP 1 1 2017

The Honorable Mick Mulvaney

Director

Office of Management and Budget

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

1650 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20503

Dear Mr. Mulvaney:

Enclosed is our budget request for fiscal year 2019. We are also submitting our request 

concurrently to the Congress in accordance with Section 7(f) of the Railroad Retirement Act. 

Resources for the Office of Inspector General are not addressed in this submission. That office 

will submit a separate request concerning its needs.

The agency’s request level in the enclosed budget reflects the direct funding of $142.5 million 

and provides funding to maintain 850 full time equivalents (FTEs). The RRB recognizes the 

ongoing need and responsibility to manage our human capital resources effectively through 

focused workforce planning and talent management efforts combined with identifying 

information technology (IT) improvements and initiatives to better support a leaner agency, 

while achieving the agency’s mission. This budget level would allow our agency to continue IT 

investment efforts by providing approximately $18.9 million, which will fully address each of 

our proposals as put forth in our Agency Reform Plan in accordance with OMB Guidance M17-22, “Comprehensive Plan for Reforming the Federal Government and Reducing the Federal 

Workforce.” In our Agency Reform Plan, we have proposed six significant IT solutions to

improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness that include modernizing legacy systems, 

enterprise infrastructure solutions, enhancing on-line and telecommunications customer selfservice tools, establishing an electronic imaging and records system, and consolidation of 

mainframe services. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

844 NORTH RUSH STREET

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60611-2092

BOARD MEMBERS:

VACANT, CHAIRMAN

WALTER A. BARROWS, LABOR MEMBER

STEVEN J. ANTHONY, MANAGEMENT MEMBER
In compliance with guidance in OMB Memorandum M-17-28, dated July 7, 2017, our fiscal 

year 2019 budget submission also includes two additional levels: an OMB guidance level and 

an OMB guidance with 5 percent investment level.

The OMB guidance level of the budget totals $111.2 million, and provides sufficient funding 

for 744 FTEs, 12.3 percent less than the requested maintenance staffing level. Budget 

projections show that the agency would need to evaluate all available options to include 

attrition, buyouts, furloughs and reduction in force to reach this FTE level. This funding level 

would not allow the agency to continue with proposed IT investments and therefore would halt 

efforts to modernize our legacy systems that also promote compliance with the President’s 

Executive Order, Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical 

Infrastructure, dated May 11, 2017.

The OMB guidance with five percent investment level of the budget totals $116.8 million and 

provides minimal funding for 744 FTEs, but allow us to invest $5.561 million into two 

investment projects. Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions, a $2.4 million project that supports the 

agency’s migration to modern telecommunications and information technology services, and, 

$3.161 million for the Legacy Systems Modernization Services (LSMS) project aimed at 

modernizing critical benefit payment systems. Funding toward these projects is critical to 

execution of our Agency’s Reform Plan as well as compliance with the previously referenced 

Presidential Executive Order.

In addition to requests for administrative expenses, this budget submission includes our best 

actuarial estimate of the expected fiscal year 2019 costs of vested dual benefits, $18 million, 

with a 2 percent reserve of $360,000. The RRB also requests $937,580,475 for applicable 

military service credits through December 2015, with interest through September 1, 2017.

Finally, included in the budget submission are three agency legislative proposals. The first 

would amend the Railroad Retirement Act to allow the Railroad Retirement Board to utilize 

various hiring authorities available to other Federal agencies. The second would amend the 

Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to include a felony 

charge for individuals committing fraud against the Agency. The final would amend the Social 

Security Act to provide access for the Railroad Retirement Board to the National Directory of 

New Hires and waive the customary fee for the RRB. 

As required by Section 1108(c) of Title 31, United States Code, we certify that all statements of 

obligations furnished to OMB in connection with our requests for proposed appropriations for 

fiscal year 2019 consist of valid obligations as defined in Section 1501(a) of that title.
Sincerely,

Original signed

(Vacant), Chairman

Walter A. Barrows, Labor Member

Steven J. Anthony, Management Member

September 11, 2017

Enclosure
SEP 1 1 2017

The Honorable Michael R. Pence

President of the Senate

S-212 Capitol Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Mr. President:

Enclosed is our budget request for fiscal year 2019. We are also submitting our request 

concurrently to the Congress in accordance with Section 7(f) of the Railroad Retirement Act. 

Resources for the Office of Inspector General are not addressed in this submission. That office 

will submit a separate request concerning its needs.

The agency’s request level in the enclosed budget reflects the direct funding of $142.5 million 

and provides funding to maintain 850 full time equivalents (FTEs). The RRB recognizes the 

ongoing need and responsibility to manage our human capital resources effectively through 

focused workforce planning and talent management efforts combined with identifying

information technology (IT) improvements and initiatives to better support a leaner agency, 

while achieving the agency’s mission. This budget level would allow our agency to continue IT 

investment efforts by providing approximately $18.9 million, which will fully address each of 

our proposals as put forth in our Agency Reform Plan in accordance with OMB Guidance M17-22, “Comprehensive Plan for Reforming the Federal Government and Reducing the Federal 

Workforce.” In our Agency Reform Plan, we have proposed six significant IT solutions to

improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness that include modernizing legacy systems, 

enterprise infrastructure solutions, enhancing on-line and telecommunications customer selfservice tools, establishing an electronic imaging and records system, and consolidation of 

mainframe services. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

844 NORTH RUSH STREET

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60611-2092

BOARD MEMBERS:

VACANT, CHAIRMAN

WALTER A. BARROWS, LABOR MEMBER

STEVEN J. ANTHONY, MANAGEMENT MEMBER
In compliance with guidance in OMB Memorandum M-17-28, dated July 7, 2017, our fiscal 

year 2019 budget submission also includes two additional levels: an OMB guidance level and 

an OMB guidance with 5 percent investment level.

The OMB guidance level of the budget totals $111.2 million, and provides sufficient funding 

for 744 FTEs, 12.3 percent less than the requested maintenance staffing level. Budget 

projections show that the agency would need to evaluate all available options to include 

attrition, buyouts, furloughs and reduction in force to reach this FTE level. This funding level 

would not allow the agency to continue with proposed IT investments and therefore would halt 

efforts to modernize our legacy systems that also promote compliance with the President’s 

Executive Order, Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical 

Infrastructure, dated May 11, 2017.

The OMB guidance with five percent investment level of the budget totals $116.8 million and 

provides minimal funding for 744 FTEs, but allow us to invest $5.561 million into two 

investment projects. Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions, a $2.4 million project that supports the 

agency’s migration to modern telecommunications and information technology services, and, 

$3.161 million for the Legacy Systems Modernization Services (LSMS) project aimed at 

modernizing critical benefit payment systems. Funding toward these projects is critical to 

execution of our Agency’s Reform Plan as well as compliance with the previously referenced 

Presidential Executive Order.

In addition to requests for administrative expenses, this budget submission includes our best 

actuarial estimate of the expected fiscal year 2019 costs of vested dual benefits, $18 million, 

with a 2 percent reserve of $360,000. The RRB also requests $937,580,475 for applicable 

military service credits through December 2015, with interest through September 1, 2017.

Finally, included in the budget submission are three agency legislative proposals. The first 

would amend the Railroad Retirement Act to allow the Railroad Retirement Board to utilize 

various hiring authorities available to other Federal agencies. The second would amend the 

Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to include a felony 

charge for individuals committing fraud against the Agency. The final would amend the Social 

Security Act to provide access for the Railroad Retirement Board to the National Directory of 

New Hires and waive the customary fee for the RRB. 

As required by Section 1108(c) of Title 31, United States Code, we certify that all statements of 

obligations furnished to OMB in connection with our requests for proposed appropriations for 

fiscal year 2019 consist of valid obligations as defined in Section 1501(a) of that title.
Sincerely,

Original signed

(Vacant), Chairman

Walter A. Barrows, Labor Member

Steven J. Anthony, Management Member

September 11, 2017

Enclosure

cc: Honorable Thad Cochran

Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations

Honorable Patrick J. Leahy

Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Appropriations

Honorable Roy Blunt

Chairman, Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health

 and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

Honorable Patty Murray

Ranking Member, Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health

 and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
SEP 1 1 2017

The Honorable Paul Ryan

Speaker of the House of Representatives

H-232 Capitol Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr. Speaker:

Enclosed is our budget request for fiscal year 2019. We are also submitting our request 

concurrently to the Congress in accordance with Section 7(f) of the Railroad Retirement Act. 

Resources for the Office of Inspector General are not addressed in this submission. That office 

will submit a separate request concerning its needs.

The agency’s request level in the enclosed budget reflects the direct funding of $142.5 million 

and provides funding to maintain 850 full time equivalents (FTEs). The RRB recognizes the 

ongoing need and responsibility to manage our human capital resources effectively through 

focused workforce planning and talent management efforts combined with identifying 

information technology (IT) improvements and initiatives to better support a leaner agency, 

while achieving the agency’s mission. This budget level would allow our agency to continue IT 

investment efforts by providing approximately $18.9 million, which will fully address each of 

our proposals as put forth in our Agency Reform Plan in accordance with OMB Guidance M17-22, “Comprehensive Plan for Reforming the Federal Government and Reducing the Federal 

Workforce.” In our Agency Reform Plan, we have proposed six significant IT solutions to

improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness that include modernizing legacy systems, 

enterprise infrastructure solutions, enhancing on-line and telecommunications customer selfservice tools, establishing an electronic imaging and records system, and consolidation of 

mainframe services. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

844 NORTH RUSH STREET

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60611-2092

BOARD MEMBERS:

VACANT, CHAIRMAN

WALTER A. BARROWS, LABOR MEMBER

STEVEN J. ANTHONY, MANAGEMENT MEMBER
In compliance with guidance in OMB Memorandum M-17-28, dated July 7, 2017, our fiscal 

year 2019 budget submission also includes two additional levels: an OMB guidance level and 

an OMB guidance with 5 percent investment level.

The OMB guidance level of the budget totals $111.2 million, and provides sufficient funding 

for 744 FTEs, 12.3 percent less than the requested maintenance staffing level. Budget 

projections show that the agency would need to evaluate all available options to include 

attrition, buyouts, furloughs and reduction in force to reach this FTE level. This funding level 

would not allow the agency to continue with proposed IT investments and therefore would halt 

efforts to modernize our legacy systems that also promote compliance with the President’s 

Executive Order, Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical 

Infrastructure, dated May 11, 2017.

The OMB guidance with five percent investment level of the budget totals $116.8 million and 

provides minimal funding for 744 FTEs, but allow us to invest $5.561 million into two 

investment projects. Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions, a $2.4 million project that supports the 

agency’s migration to modern telecommunications and information technology services, and, 

$3.161 million for the Legacy Systems Modernization Services (LSMS) project aimed at 

modernizing critical benefit payment systems. Funding toward these projects is critical to 

execution of our Agency’s Reform Plan as well as compliance with the previously referenced 

Presidential Executive Order.

In addition to requests for administrative expenses, this budget submission includes our best 

actuarial estimate of the expected fiscal year 2019 costs of vested dual benefits, $18 million, 

with a 2 percent reserve of $360,000. The RRB also requests $937,580,475 for applicable 

military service credits through December 2015, with interest through September 1, 2017.

Finally, included in the budget submission are three agency legislative proposals. The first 

would amend the Railroad Retirement Act to allow the Railroad Retirement Board to utilize 

various hiring authorities available to other Federal agencies. The second would amend the 

Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to include a felony 

charge for individuals committing fraud against the Agency. The final would amend the Social 

Security Act to provide access for the Railroad Retirement Board to the National Directory of 

New Hires and waive the customary fee for the RRB. 

As required by Section 1108(c) of Title 31, United States Code, we certify that all statements of 

obligations furnished to OMB in connection with our requests for proposed appropriations for 

fiscal year 2019 consist of valid obligations as defined in Section 1501(a) of that title.
Sincerely,

Original signed

(Vacant), Chairman

Walter A. Barrows, Labor Member

Steven J. Anthony, Management Member

September 11, 2017

Enclosure

cc: Honorable Rodney P. Frelinghuysen

Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations

Honorable Nita M. Lowey

Ranking Member, House Committee on Appropriations

Honorable Tom Cole

Chairman, House Subcommittee on Labor, Health

 and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

Honorable Rosa L. DeLauro

Ranking Member, House Subcommittee on Labor, Health

 and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
- i -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

FISCAL YEAR 2019 BUDGET SUBMISSION

Table of Contents

APPROPRIATION REQUESTS Page

Social Security Equivalent Benefit Account............................................................................... 1

Railroad Retirement Account ..................................................................................................... 5

Federal Payments to the Railroad Retirement Accounts............................................................ 9

Dual Benefits Payments Account ............................................................................................. 13

Limitation on Administration

Retirement/Survivor Benefit Program................................................................................ 17

Unemployment/Sickness Insurance Program ..................................................................... 19

Administrative Appropriation Request for Fiscal Year 2019............................................. 22

Budget by Appropriation and Object Class........................................................................ 23

Explanation of Changes Between the Estimated Budget for Fiscal Year 2018, 

 and Budget Levels for Fiscal Year 2019.......................................................................... 24

Summary of Full-Time Equivalent Employment by Series................................................ 28

Full-Time Equivalent Employees by Organization ............................................................ 29

Narrative Description of Strategic Goals............................................................................ 30

Appropriation Request by Strategic Goal........................................................................... 32

 Retirement/Survivor Benefit Program Summary Processing Workload Table...............36

 Unemployment/Sickness Insurance Program Summary Processing Workload Table.......37

PERFORMANCE PLAN

RRB Performance Plan, Fiscal Year 2019.......................................................................... 39
- ii -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

FISCAL YEAR 2019 BUDGET SUBMISSION

Table of Contents

OMB EXHIBITS

Information Technology

Information Technology Resources Statement .................................................................... 61

Information Technology Table and Capital Plan, Fiscal Years 2017 - 2022....................... 62

Prioritized Information Technology Investments ................................................................ 63

Proposed Legislation

Proposed Legislative Program ............................................................................................. 73

Other

Relationship of Programs to Account Structure................................................................... 75

Agency Reform Plan............................................................................................................ 77

Appendix 1 RRB Plan to Maximize Employee Performance....................................... 89
- 1 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Social Security Equivalent Benefit Account

Budget Account - 60-8010-0-7-601

The Railroad Retirement Solvency Act of 1983 amended the Railroad Retirement Act to 

establish a Social Security Equivalent Benefit (SSEB) Account beginning October 1, 1984. The 

SSEB Account, which is separate from other railroad retirement accounts, is used to record 

revenues and expenditures related to social security equivalent portions (similar to "tier I" 

amounts) of railroad retirement annuities. Accordingly, funds in the SSEB Account are used to 

pay social security equivalent benefits and related administrative expenses. A social security 

equivalent benefit is the portion of a railroad retirement annuity that corresponds to an amount 

calculated under social security formulas, but is based on combined railroad retirement and 

social security credits.

The following amounts are included as revenue to the SSEB Account:

(1) payroll taxes,

(2) income taxes attributable to taxation of the social security portion of 

railroad retirement annuities,

(3) financial interchange transfers from the social security trust funds 

provided by Section 7(c) of the Railroad Retirement Act, 

(4) interest on uncashed checks, and

(5) return on investments.

In addition, for calendar year 2012, the SSEB Account also received transfers from the general 

fund of the Treasury due to the temporary payroll tax reduction provisions of the Middle Class 

Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012. 

In a relatively small number of cases, the railroad retirement system does not pay benefits when 

social security would pay benefits. In these cases, mainly dependent children of retired railroad 

employees, the SSEB Account collects an amount through the financial interchange but does not 

pay a corresponding benefit. This imbalance between outgo and income is relatively small in 

any particular year. Section 15A(d)(2) of the Railroad Retirement Act, as amended, provides 

that amounts in the SSEB Account not needed for payment of current benefits and administrative 

expenses will be transferred to the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust or the 

Railroad Retirement Account. 

Requested appropriation

The table on pages 2 and 3 identifies the estimated budget authority and outlays for this account 

for fiscal years 2017 through 2027, based on the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) FY

2017 mid-session economic assumptions, issued July 2016. The estimates reflect current law. 
- 2 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Social Security Equivalent Benefit Account

(Budget Account - 60-8010-0-7-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

Current 

services

2017 2018 2019

Budget authority.............. 7,246,000 7,527,000 7,764,000

Outlays.......................... 7,242,000 7,497,000 7,748,000

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

Budget authority:

 Current services............. 7,971,000 8,172,000 8,350,000 8,515,000 8,669,000

Outlays:

 Current services............. 7,952,000 8,159,000 8,338,000 8,505,000 8,659,000

Note: In March 2017, the RRB paid social security equivalent benefits to 439,000 beneficiaries. The RRB estimates that in March 2018 

and 2019, the agency will pay these benefits to 444,000 and 440,000 beneficiaries, respectively.

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 3 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Social Security Equivalent Benefit Account

(Budget Account - 60-8010-0-7-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

2025 2026 2027

Budget authority:

 Current services.......................... 8,819,000 8,971,000 9,127,000

Outlays:

 Current services.......................... 8,809,000 8,961,000 9,116,000

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 4 -

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- 5 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Railroad Retirement Account

Budget Account - 60-8011-0-7-601

Under the Railroad Retirement Act, the RRB pays retirement and disability annuities to qualified 

railroad workers. Supplemental annuities are payable to career railroad employees with service 

before October 1981. Annuities are also payable to spouses and divorced spouses of retired 

workers and to widows, widowers, children, and certain other survivors of deceased railroad 

workers. There are also provisions for lump-sum benefits. Qualified railroad retirement 

beneficiaries are also covered by Medicare in the same way as social security beneficiaries.

The Railroad Retirement Account funds the above-described benefits in excess of social security 

benefits. Funding is primarily from payroll taxes on railroad employers and employees, earnings 

on trust fund investments and income taxes attributable to these benefits. 

The Railroad Retirement and Survivors’ Improvement Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-90) made a number 

of major changes to the Railroad Retirement Act. In addition to other provisions, P.L. 107-90 

provides for the transfer of railroad retirement funds from the Railroad Retirement Account to 

the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (NRRIT), whose Board of Trustees is 

empowered to invest NRRIT-held assets in non-governmental assets, such as equities and debt, 

as well as in governmental securities. NRRIT is not treated as an agency or instrumentality of 

the Federal Government. 

P.L. 107-90 also repealed the railroad retirement supplemental annuity tax paid by rail employers 

and eliminated the separate Railroad Retirement Supplemental Account. While supplemental 

railroad retirement annuities provided by the Railroad Retirement Act continue to be due and 

payable, they are now funded through the Railroad Retirement Account. 

Requested appropriation

The table on pages 6 and 7 identifies estimated budget authority and outlays for this account for 

fiscal years 2017 through 2027. The estimates are based on OMB's FY 2017 Mid-session 

Review (issued July 2016) economic assumptions and reflect current law. 
- 6 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Railroad Retirement Account

(Budget Account - 60-8011-0-7-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

Current 

services

2017 2018 2019

Budget authority............... 5,323,000 5,474,000 5,550,000

Outlays.......................... 5,337,000 5,461,000 5,538,000

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

Budget authority:

 Current services............. 5,609,000 5,656,000 5,693,000 5,730,000 5,772,000

Outlays:

 Current services............. 5,599,000 5,645,000 5,683,000 5,719,000 5,760,000

Notes: The RRB paid tier II benefits to 498,000 beneficiaries in March 2017. The agency expects to pay these benefits to 503,000 beneficiaries 

in March 2018 and 499,000 beneficiaries in March 2019. The RRB also paid supplemental annuities to 123,000 beneficiaries in March 

2017. The agency expects to pay supplemental annuities to 121,000 beneficiaries in March 2018, and 119,000 beneficiaries in March 

2019. 

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 7 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Railroad Retirement Account

(Budget Account - 60-8011-0-7-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

2025 2026 2027

Budget authority:

 Current services.......................... 5,820,000 5,874,000 5,935,000

Outlays:

 Current services.......................... 5,808,000 5,861,000 5,921,000

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 8 -

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- 9 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Federal Payments to the Railroad Retirement Accounts

Budget Account - 60-0113-0-1-601

This account was established in conjunction with the implementation of the Railroad Retirement 

Solvency Act of 1983. It facilitates the administration of the Railroad Retirement Act by 

maintaining accurate accounting of, and control over, various financial transactions involving the 

railroad retirement trust funds. This account acts as a conduit for various financial transactions, 

such as interfund transfers and fund transfers from the Department of the Treasury (Treasury).

Interest on uncashed checks

Section 417 of the Railroad Retirement Solvency Act of 1983 amended the Railroad Retirement 

Act to provide for the reimbursement of principal and interest for unnegotiated railroad 

retirement benefit checks to the extent that such reimbursements are provided for in advance in 

appropriation acts. Beginning in fiscal year 1991, the principal amount of uncashed railroad 

retirement and railroad unemployment insurance checks and checks for administrative expenses, 

under provisions of the Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987, are made available by 

Treasury. Treasury transfers principal amounts directly to the appropriate trust fund or 

administrative limitation. As a result, the RRB is not required to seek prior appropriation 

authority for the principal amount of the uncashed check transfers. Interest on uncashed checks, 

however, must be appropriated in advance. This account is the vehicle through which such 

appropriations are made. Under current law, the RRB requests $150,000 for estimated interest 

related to uncashed checks in fiscal year 2019, which shall remain available through September

30, 2020.

Military service credits

In accordance with, and pursuant to, Section 15(b) of the Railroad Retirement Act, the RRB also 

requests appropriations to the Federal Payments to the Railroad Retirement Accounts for 

reimbursement of costs (including interest, administrative expenses, and an actuarial adjustment) 

for crediting military service not reimbursed under the financial interchange. Both the railroad 

retirement system and the social security system are entitled to reimbursement for the cost of 

military service credits. Depending on the period during which the military service was 

rendered, the reimbursement may be made on either a benefit or prepaid tax basis. 

Reimbursement on a tax basis is accomplished by paying payroll taxes for individuals in military 

service. No additional reimbursement is due at retirement for military service credits reimbursed 

on a tax basis. Reimbursement on a benefit basis is accomplished by computing the value of 

retirement and survivor benefits with and without military service and requesting reimbursement 

based on this difference. 
- 10 -

The Railroad Retirement Account has received full reimbursement for the tax basis periods. No 

reimbursements from general revenue have been received for the benefit basis periods: 

 June 15, 1948, through December 15, 1950, creditable under P.L. 100-647, and 

 July 1, 1963, and later. 

In prior years, we have sought concurrence with our methodology for computing the 

reimbursable amount from the Social Security Administration (SSA), Treasury and OMB. We 

received responses from SSA and Treasury. SSA has concurred with our methodology while 

Treasury stated that they had no role in this particular process. Section 15(b) requires that these 

reimbursements from the general funds be authorized in advance by an appropriation act. The 

fiscal year 2019 appropriation request includes $937,580,475 for applicable military service 

credits through December 2015, with interest through September 1, 2017. Excluded are all costs 

for which the RRB has already received credits. 

Other transfers

Appropriations are not necessary for other amounts that flow through this account to the 

appropriate trust fund accounts under authorizing legislation. Amounts expected to be 

transferred through this account in fiscal year 2019 that do not require appropriation action 

include $330 million in income taxes on the social security equivalent portion of tier I benefits, 

and $437 million in income taxes on tier II benefits and the non-social security equivalent 

portion of tier I benefits. 

Requested appropriation

The table on pages 11 and 12 shows the estimated budget authority and outlays for this account 

for fiscal years 2017 through 2027. The estimates are based on economic assumptions in OMB’s

FY 2017 Mid-Session Review, issued July 2016. The current services level includes interest 

amounts on uncashed checks for all years.
- 11 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Federal Payments to the Railroad Retirement Accounts

(Budget Account - 60-0113-0-1-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

Current 

services

2017 2018 2019 1/

Budget authority............... 710,150 737,150 1,704,730

Outlays.......................... 710,150 737,150 1,704,730

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

Budget authority:

 Current services............. 795,150 822,150 848,150 873,150 898,150

Outlays:

 Current services............. 795,150 822,150 848,150 873,150 898,150

1/ Fiscal year 2019 budget authority and outlay amounts for current services include $937,580,475 for military service credits through 

December 2015 with interest through September 1, 2017.

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 12 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Federal Payments to the Railroad Retirement Accounts

(Budget Account - 60-0113-0-1-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

2025 2026 2027

Budget authority:

 Current services.......................... 924,150 953,150 983,150

Outlays:

 Current services.......................... 924,150 953,150 983,150

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 13 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Dual Benefits Payments Account

Budget Account - 60-0111-0-1-601

Section 15(d) of the Railroad Retirement Act provides for a Dual Benefits Payments Account, 

which is separate from other railroad retirement accounts. The vested dual benefit portion of 

railroad retirement annuities is paid from this account and is funded by appropriations from 

general revenues.

Legislative history

Under laws in effect prior to 1975, a worker engaging in covered employment under both the 

Railroad Retirement Act and Social Security Act could receive benefits separately under both 

Acts. Because the social security benefit formula is weighted in favor of the low wage earner, 

the total of a worker’s benefits from both systems averaged more than annuities of railroad 

employees who worked in the rail industry exclusively, and who had paid proportionally higher 

retirement taxes for the purpose of receiving higher benefits. The cost of the dual benefits was 

borne by the railroad retirement system since they reduced the system’s income from its financial 

interchange with the social security system. 

This situation was the major cause of the poor financial condition of the railroad retirement 

system in the early 1970s. In order to improve the systems financial condition, the Railroad 

Retirement Act of 1974 provided that the tier I component of the railroad retirement annuity be 

reduced by any social security benefit. This essentially integrated the two systems and 

eliminated the advantage of qualifying for benefits under both systems. 

However, it was generally considered unfair to eliminate this advantage entirely for those already 

retired or close to retirement when the 1974 Act became effective. The 1974 Act, therefore, 

provided for a restoration of benefits which were considered vested at the end of 1974. The 

restored amount was known as the “vested dual benefit.” 

After considering various alternatives, the Congress authorized general fund appropriations to 

finance the cost of phasing out dual benefits. The Congress considered it unfair to impose this 

cost on current and future railroad employees because such employees would not be permitted to 

receive dual benefits upon retirement (except where vested rights were involved). Similarly, the 

Congress believed that it would be unfair to impose this cost on railroads because railroads had 

not benefited and had consistently opposed the creation and expansion of dual benefits. 

Financing the vested dual benefit component of railroad retirement annuities from general 

revenues was supported by a precedent regarding military service and by the fact that the dual 

benefit problem had been brought about by prior Congressional action repealing past dual benefit 

restrictions over the objections of the railroads.
- 14 -

Under the 1974 Act, appropriations had been authorized from general revenues for the phase-out 

costs of vested dual benefits. The amounts were to be sufficient to fund vested dual benefits on a 

level payment basis over the years 1976 through 2000. Because there was no provision in the 

law to reduce vested dual benefits to a level that would be fully covered by the amount 

appropriated, railroad retirement taxes were being used to cover the shortfall in the appropriation 

from general revenues. This led to a drain on the Railroad Retirement Account and contributed 

to a cash flow crisis. 

To stop the resulting drain on the Railroad Retirement Account, the 1981 amendments changed 

vested dual benefits to a pay-as-you-go basis rather than a level-payment system. Starting in 

fiscal year 1982, vested dual benefits were to be reduced so as not to exceed the amount of the 

annual appropriation. 

The Railroad Retirement Solvency Act of 1983 provided that revenues generated from income 

taxes on vested dual benefits be credited to the Railroad Retirement Account for fiscal years 

1984 through 1988, and thereafter to the Dual Benefits Payments Account. Thus, since fiscal 

year 1989, these taxes have been credited to the Dual Benefits Payments Account and applied as 

an offset to the amount of funding needed from general revenues.

Requested appropriation

The table on pages 15 and 16 identifies the estimated budget authority and outlays for the Dual 

Benefits Payments Account for fiscal years 2017 through 2027. 

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 (P.L. 115-31) provided $25,000,000 for the payment 

of vested dual benefits. 

The estimate for fiscal year 2018 includes $22,000,000 for the payment of vested dual benefits, 

as shown in the table on the following page, plus a 2 percent reserve of ($440,000) to become 

available in proportion to the amount by which the product of recipients and the average benefit 

received exceeds the amount available to pay benefits.

For fiscal year 2019, the RRB requests an appropriation of $18,000,000 to pay vested dual 

benefits, plus a 2 percent reserve of $360,000 to become available in proportion to the amount by 

which the product of recipients and the average benefit received exceeds the amount available 

for payment of vested dual benefits. An estimated $1,000,000 in income taxes on these benefits 

will be credited to the Dual Benefits Payments Account.
- 15 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Dual Benefits Payments Account

(Budget Account - 60-0111-0-1-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

Current 

services

2017 2018 2019

Budget authority............... 25,000 22,000 18,000

Outlays.......................... 25,000 22,000 18,000

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

Budget authority:

 Current services............. 16,000 13,000 11,000 9,000 8,000

Outlays:

 Current services............. 16,000 13,000 11,000 9,000 8,000

Note: The budget estimates for this account include its share of interest on unnegotiated checks through fiscal year 2018.

The RRB paid vested dual benefits to 12,000 beneficiaries in March 2017. The agency expects to pay these benefits to 11,000

beneficiaries in March 2018 and 9,000 beneficiaries in March 2019.

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 16 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Dual Benefits Payments Account

(Budget Account - 60-0111-0-1-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

2025 2026 2027

Budget authority:

 Current services.......................... 6,000 5,000 4,000

Outlays:

 Current services.......................... 6,000 5,000 4,000

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 17 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Limitation on Administration

Budget Account - 60-8237-0-7-601

This appropriation request is for funds to administer the retirement/survivor and 

unemployment/sickness insurance benefit programs provided for railroad workers and members 

of their families under the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance 

Act. Included in this request is an amount for certain activities related to the Medicare health 

insurance program. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reimburse the RRB 

for certain other administrative expenses related to the Medicare program.

Retirement/Survivor Benefit Program

Under the Railroad Retirement Act, the RRB pays retirement and disability annuities to retired 

workers with qualifying years of railroad service. Annuities are also payable to spouses and 

divorced spouses of retired workers and to widows, widowers, children and certain other 

survivors of deceased railroad workers. Qualified railroad retirement beneficiaries are covered 

by the Medicare health insurance program.

The RRB estimates that it will pay the following in retirement and survivor benefits through 

fiscal year 2019: $12.5 billion to 549,000 persons in fiscal year 2017, $12.9 billion to 546,000 

persons in fiscal year 2018 and $13.2 billion to 542,000 persons in fiscal year 2019.

Legislative history

The RRB was created in the 1930s by legislation establishing a retirement benefit program for 

the nation's railroad workers. Private industrial pension plans had been pioneered in the railroad 

industry and, by the 1930s, pension plans were far more developed in the rail industry than in 

most other businesses or industries. These plans, however, had serious defects, which were 

magnified by the Great Depression. While the social security system was in the planning stage, 

railroad workers sought a separate railroad retirement system, which would continue and 

broaden the existing railroad programs under a uniform national plan. The proposed social 

security system was not scheduled to begin monthly benefit payments for several years and 

would not give credit for service performed before 1937, while conditions in the railroad 

industry called for immediate benefit payments based on prior service.

Legislation was enacted in 1934, 1935 and 1937 to establish a railroad retirement system 

separate from the social security program legislated in 1935. Such legislation, taking into 

account the particular circumstances of the railroad industry, was not without precedent. 

Numerous laws pertaining to railroad operations and safety had already been enacted since the 

Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.
- 18 -

Since passage of the Railroad Retirement Acts of the 1930s, numerous other railroad laws have 

subsequently been enacted.

Railroad Retirement and Survivors’ Improvement Act of 2001

The Railroad Retirement and Survivors’ Improvement Act of 2001, Public Law 107-90, 

liberalized early retirement benefits for 30-year employees, eliminated a cap on monthly 

retirement and disability benefits, lowered the minimum service requirement from 10 years to 5 

years of service if performed after 1995, and provided for increased benefits for some 

widow(er)s. The financing sections of the legislation repealed the supplemental annuity workhour tax, and provided for adjustments in the payroll tax rates paid by employers and employees.

Public Law 107-90 also provides for the transfer of railroad retirement funds from the Railroad 

Retirement Accounts to the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (NRRIT), whose 

Board of seven trustees is empowered to invest NRRIT assets in non-governmental assets, such 

as equities and debt, as well as in governmental securities. Public Law 107-90 discontinued the 

separate Railroad Retirement Supplemental Account. While supplemental benefits provided by 

the Railroad Retirement Act continue to be due and payable, they are now funded through the 

Railroad Retirement Account.

Coordination with Social Security

While the railroad retirement system has remained separate from the social security system, the 

two systems are closely coordinated with regard to earnings credits, benefit payments, and taxes. 

Following the recommendations of the Federal Commission on Railroad Retirement, legislation 

enacted in 1974 restructured railroad retirement benefits into tiers, in order to coordinate them 

more fully with social security credits, using social security benefit formulas. Tier I benefits are 

generally the equivalent of social security benefits. Tier II benefits are based on railroad service 

only and are comparable to industrial pensions.

Jurisdiction over the payment of retirement and survivor benefits is shared by the RRB and SSA. 

The RRB has jurisdiction over the payment of retirement benefits if the employee had at least 10 

years of railroad service, or 5 years of service if performed after 1995. For survivor benefits, 

there is an additional requirement that the employee's last regular employment before retirement 

or death was in the railroad industry. If a railroad employee or his/her survivor(s) do not qualify 

for railroad retirement benefits, the RRB transfers the employee's railroad retirement credits to 

SSA, where they are treated as social security credits.

Sources of income for the retirement/survivor benefit program

The primary source of income for the railroad retirement/survivor benefit program is payroll 

taxes paid by railroad employees and employers. By law, railroad retirement taxes are 

coordinated with social security taxes.
- 19 -

Employees and employers pay tier I taxes at the same rate as social security taxes. In addition, 

both employees and employers pay tier II taxes which are used to finance railroad retirement 

benefit payments over and above social security levels. Historically, railroad retirement taxes 

have been considerably higher than social security taxes.

In recent years, the funds have also received transfers from general revenue to make up for 

payroll taxes lost due to “tax holiday” provisions first enacted under the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5) and last extended through the end of calendar year 2012 

under the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-96).

Another source of income is the financial interchange with the social security trust funds. Under 

the financial interchange, in effect, the portion of railroad retirement annuities that is equivalent 

to social security benefits is reinsured through the social security system. The purpose of this 

financial coordination is to place the social security trust funds in the same position they would 

be in if railroad service were covered by the social security program instead of the railroad 

retirement program.

Other current sources of income are returns on investments, and appropriations from general 

revenues provided after 1974 as part of a phase-out of certain vested dual benefits. The Railroad 

Retirement Account and Social Security Equivalent Benefit Account also receive credit for 

Federal income taxes paid on benefits from these accounts.

Unemployment/Sickness Insurance Program

Under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, the RRB pays (1) unemployment insurance 

benefits to railroad workers who are unemployed but ready, willing, and able to work and 

(2) sickness insurance benefits to railroad workers who are unable to work because of illness, 

injury, or pregnancy.

In the benefit year that ended June 30, 2017, the RRB paid $59,888,000 in unemployment 

insurance benefits from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance (RUI) Account, and recovered 

$5,862,000, resulting in net payments of $54,026,000 to a total of 13,194 unemployment 

insurance claimants. During the same period, the RRB paid $77,075,000 in sickness insurance 

benefits from the RUI Account, and recovered $17,251,000, resulting in net payments of 

$59,824,000 to a total of 16,052 sickness insurance claimants. The RRB also recovered a total of 

$19,000 under provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and 

recovered $148,000 in additional extended unemployment benefits under the Worker, 

Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009, as amended by the Tax Relief, 

Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, the Temporary Payroll 

Tax Continuation Act of 2011, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, and 

the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. 
- 20 -

In accordance with the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as 

amended by the Budget Control Act of 2011, amounts reflect a reduction of 7.3% under 

sequestration for days of unemployment and sickness after September 30, 2014, a reduction of 

6.8% for days after September 30, 2015, and 6.9% for days after September 30, 2016. 

Provisions for benefits

A new unemployment and sickness insurance benefit year begins every July 1, with eligibility 

generally based on railroad service and earnings in the preceding calendar year. Up to 26 weeks 

of normal unemployment insurance benefits and 26 weeks of normal sickness insurance benefits 

are payable to an individual in a benefit year. Extended benefits may also be payable for up to 

13 weeks to persons with 10 or more years of service.

Additional extended unemployment benefits are also now payable to some railroad workers 

under the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009, as amended. These 

benefits are funded separately.

Legislative history

The railroad unemployment insurance system was established by legislation enacted in the 

1930s. While State unemployment programs generally covered railroad workers, railroad 

operations which crossed State lines caused special problems. Unemployed railroad workers 

were denied compensation by one State because they became unemployed in another State or 

because their employers had paid unemployment taxes in another State. Although there were 

cases where employees appeared to be covered in more than one State, they often did not qualify 

in any.

The Federal study commission, which reported on the nationwide State plans for unemployment 

insurance, recommended that railroad workers be covered by a separate plan because of the 

complications their coverage had caused the State plans. The Congress subsequently enacted the 

Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act in 1938. Railroad unemployment insurance benefits 

became payable in July 1939. Sickness insurance benefits were added by amendments enacted 

in 1946. Subsequent amendments over the years revised eligibility requirements and adjusted 

benefit amounts and tax rates.

The railroad unemployment and sickness insurance system is financed by contributions from 

railroad employers. By law, a portion of the contributions is deposited in the Railroad 

Unemployment Insurance Administration Fund for the RRB's administrative expenses. The 

contributions are permanently appropriated for benefit payments and administrative expenses.

Large scale railroad layoffs during the economic recession in the early 1980s increased 

unemployment insurance payments to record levels, far exceeding unemployment contributions. 

By the end of July 1983, the account had a deficit of $550 million.
- 21 -

The Railroad Retirement Solvency Act, enacted August 12, 1983, increased railroad 

unemployment and sickness insurance taxes by increasing the limit on compensation subject to 

the tax from $400 to $600 a month. The act also imposed a temporary repayment tax on railroad 

employers to help repay loans from the Railroad Retirement Account.

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-272), enacted April 7, 

1986, increased the repayment tax. It also restored the authority of the Railroad Unemployment 

Insurance Account to borrow from the Railroad Retirement Account; this authority had been 

removed by the Railroad Retirement Solvency Act. The law also provided for surtax on railroad 

employers in the event that further borrowing after September 30, 1985, from the Railroad 

Retirement Account became necessary.

In November 1988, the Congress enacted the Railroad Unemployment Insurance and Retirement 

Improvement Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-647) to resolve the system's long-term financing problems. 

In brief, the legislation improved the program's financing by (1) indexing the tax base to 

increased wage levels, (2) determining employers' tax rates by using an experience rating 

formula, (3) establishing a variable surcharge geared to the balance in the Railroad 

Unemployment Insurance Account, and (4) ensuring repayment of the debt to the Railroad 

Retirement Account by extending the repayment tax until the debt was fully repaid, with interest. 

The loan was repaid in full with a transfer of funds from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance 

Account to the Railroad Retirement Account on June 29, 1993.

The Railroad Unemployment Insurance Amendments Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-251), enacted 

October 9, 1996, increased the railroad unemployment and sickness insurance daily benefit rate 

and revised the formula for indexing future benefit rates. It also reduced the waiting period for 

initial benefit payments and eliminated duplicate waiting periods in continuing periods of 

unemployment and sickness. In addition, the legislation applied an earnings test to claims for 

unemployment and reduced the duration of extended benefit periods for long-service employees. 

The provisions of the legislation were based on joint recommendations to the Congress 

negotiated by rail labor and management in order to update the railroad unemployment insurance 

system along the lines of State unemployment insurance systems.
- 22 -

.RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Administrative Appropriation Request for Fiscal Year 2019

Limitation on Administration (60-8237-0-7-601)

Budget Level FTEs Amount 1/

($ thousands)

OMB guidance 744 $111,225,000

OMB guidance plus 5% investment 744 116,786,000

Agency request level 850 142,506,000

1/ Dollar amounts do not include reimbursements.

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 23 -

FY 2017

AMOUNT

OF

CHANGE

FY 2018

HOUSE 

MARK

AMOUNT

OF

CHANGE

FY 2019 OMB 

GUIDANCE

AMOUNT

OF

CHANGE

FY 2019 

PLUS 5% 

INVESTMENT

AMOUNT

OF

CHANGE

FY 2019

AGENCY

REQUEST

853 (35) 818 (74) 744 0 744 106 850

11.1 FULL-TIME PERMANENT 63,708 (417) 63,291 (5,022) 58,269 0 58,269 9,306 67,575

11.3 OTHER THAN FULL-TIME PERMANENT 829 (288) 541 (159) 382 0 382 83 464

11.5 OTHER PERSONNEL COMPENSATION 1,634 35 1,670 (411) 1,259 0 1,259 0 1,259

11.9 TOTAL PERSONNEL COMPENSATION 66,171 (670) 65,502 (5,592) 59,909 0 59,909 9,388 69,298

12.1 PERSONNEL BENEFITS: CIVILIAN 21,992 (611) 21,381 (1,418) 19,963 0 19,963 3,001 22,964

13.0 BENEFITS FOR FORMER PERSONNEL 315 (0) 315 (162) 154 0 154 0 154

21.0 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION OF PERSO 736 99 835 334 1,169 0 1,169 0 1,169

22.0 TRANSPORTATION OF THINGS 36 13 49 53 102 0 102 0 102

23.1 RENTAL PAYMENTS TO GSA 3,200 100 3,300 100 3,400 0 3,400 0 3,400

23.3 COMMUNICATIONS, UTILITIES, & 

MISCELLANEOUS CHARGES 5,575 (30) 5,544 229 5,773 0 5,773 0 5,773

24.0 PRINTING AND REPRODUCTION 256 31 287 20 307 0 307 0 307

25.0 OTHER SERVICES 14,164 1,119 15,283 3,168 18,451 5,561 24,012 13,331 37,343

26.0 SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS 611 171 782 (61) 720 0 720 0 720

31.0 EQUIPMENT 444 (222) 222 1,054 1,276 0 1,276 0 1,276

113,500 0 113,500 (2,275) 111,225 5,561 116,786 25,720 142,506

28,043 300 28,343 (348) 27,995 0 27,995 0 27,995

141,543 300 141,843 (2,623) 139,220 5,561 144,781 25,720 170,501

113,500 0 113,500 (2,275) 111,225 5,561 116,786 25,720 142,506

> The agency would need to evaluate the cost of all available options to include attrition, buyouts, furloughs, and reduction in force to reach this FTE level. 

 This budget submission does not reflect anticipated cost of implementation of significant FTE reductions.

> At the OMB Guidance level, there is no funding for IT/Capital Plan initiatives.

> The 5 percent investment level includes $2,400,000 for Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) project and $3,161,000 for Legacy Systems Modernization Services (LSMS).

 The agency request level contains an additional $13,331,000 (of which $4,119,000 to be dedicated to LSMS and $9,212,000 to other IT initiatives) for a total of $18,892,000.

> The amounts do not include reimbursements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and others.

> Details may not add to totals due to rounding.

> OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.1 (July 2017) 

> Salary and benefit estimates reflect a 1.9 percent pay increase in January 2018 and 2.0 percent in January 2019. (OMB A-11 Reference: Section 32.1 July 2017)

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

LIMITATION ON ADMINISTRATION

BUDGET BY APPROPRIATION AND OBJECT CLASS

(in thousands of dollars)

TOTAL FTEs (INCLUDING REIMBURSABLE)

TOTAL RRB DIRECT PROGRAM OBLIGATIONS

TOTAL RRB DIRECT OBLIGATIONS

REIMBURSABLE OBLIGATIONS

TOTAL RRB OBLIGATIONS

LIMITATION ON ADMINSTRATION

NOTES:
Explanation of Changes Between the Estimated Budget for Fiscal Year 2018, and Budget 

Levels for Fiscal Year 2019

Limitation of Administration, Direct Obligations (Dollars in Thousands)

- 24 -

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)

Category

FY 2019 OMB 

Guidance

FY 2019 OMB 

Guidance with 

5% 

Investment

FY 2019 

Agency 

Request

(2,275) 5,561 25,720

1. Personnel compensation (5,592) 0 9,388 

Changes reflect variations in RRB staffing at each of the 

budget levels. The OMB Guidance and the 5% investment 

levels provide sufficient funding for 744 FTEs, a 

difference of 74 FTE's than projected for fiscal year 2018. 

The agency would need to evaluate the cost of all available 

options to include attrition, buyouts, furloughs, and 

reduction in force to reach this FTE level. This budget 

submission does not reflect anticipated cost of 

implementation of significant FTE reductions.

At the agency request level, the RRB would be able to 

fund 850 FTEs.

Projected compensation costs reflect an estimated pay 

increase of 1.9% in January 2018 and 2.0 in January 2019.

At all funding levels, overtime is estimated at $503,400. 

2. Civilian personnel benefits (1,418) 0 3,001 

Employee benefits are estimated to total approximately 

25.0% of salary costs in 2019, an increase of 

approximately 0.4%. Changes between the fiscal year 

2019 budget levels also reflect variations in RRB staffing 

as noted above.

At all funding levels, the cost for change-of-station is 

$180,000. 

3. Benefits for former personnel (162 ) 0 0 

At all funding levels, workers' compensation benefits to be 

billed by the Department of Labor in fiscal year 2019 

amount to $153,687, a decrease of $161,651 from fiscal 

year 2018. 
Explanation of Changes Between the Estimated Budget for Fiscal Year 2018, and Budget 

Levels for Fiscal Year 2019

Limitation of Administration, Direct Obligations (Dollars in Thousands)

- 25 -

Category

FY 2019 OMB 

Guidance

FY 2019 OMB 

Guidance with 

5% 

Investment

FY 2019 

Agency 

Request

(2,275) 5,561 25,720

4. Travel and transportation of persons 334 0 0 

At all funding levels, travel for fiscal year 2019 is 

$1,169,000, an increase of approximately $334,000 from 

fiscal year 2018. The agency should be able to accomplish 

training, development, and customer out-reach programs at 

this amount.

5. Transportation of things 53 0 0

At all funding levels, transportation of things is $102,000, 

an increase of $53,000 from fiscal year 2018.

6. Rental payments to the General Services 

Administration (GSA) 100 0 0 

At all funding levels, a total of $3.4 million is requested 

for GSA rent in fiscal year 2019. This category reflects 

charges on an actual cost basis that RRB will continue to 

pay for rent, consistent with RRB’s memorandum of 

understanding with GSA. The total is approximately 

$100,000 more than the planned amount for fiscal year 

2018.

7. Communications, utilities, and miscellaneous 

charges

229 0 0 

At all funding levels, communications, utilities, and 

miscellaneous charges total $5,773,000, an increase of 

$229,000 from fiscal year 2018. Fiscal year 2019 details 

are shown below. (Amounts have been rounded to 

thousands.)

FY 2019 Funding at the OMB Guidance Level

 Miscellaneous charges - $1,030 275 0 0 

 Postage -$1,587 5 0 0 

 Utilities - $560 65 0 0 

 Communications - $2,596 (116) 0 0 
Explanation of Changes Between the Estimated Budget for Fiscal Year 2018, and Budget 

Levels for Fiscal Year 2019

Limitation of Administration, Direct Obligations (Dollars in Thousands)

- 26 -

Category

FY 2019 OMB 

Guidance

FY 2019 OMB 

Guidance with 

5% 

Investment

FY 2019 

Agency 

Request

(2,275) 5,561 25,720

8. Printing and reproduction 20 0 0 

At all funding levels, printing and reproduction is 

$307,070. This category reflects a slight increase in costs 

for printing benefit rate letters, tax statements, and 

earnings information for railroad retirement and 

unemployment/sickness insurance beneficiaries. The 

category also includes costs for official publication of 

agency information in the Federal Register and Code of 

Federal Regulations.

9. Other services 3,168 5,561 13,331

At the OMB Guidance level, the planned spending is 

$18,451,000. This level contains no agency initiatives. At 

the plus 5% investment level, the planned spending is 

$24,012,000 and includes $5,561,000 agency initiatives, of 

which $2,400,000 is dedicated to Enterprise Infrastructure 

Solutions (EIS) and $3,161,000 is dedicated to Legacy 

Systems Modernization Services (LSMS) project. The 

agency request includes an additional $13,331,000 for the 

following items not funded at the lower budget levels: an 

additional $4,119,000 for LSMS and $9,212,000 for other 

IT Initiatives. See pages 61 thru 71 for investment details. 

Fiscal year 2019 details are shown below. (Amounts have 

been rounded to thousands.)

FY 2019 Funding at OMB Guidance Level

Consulting services - $397 (237) 0 0 

Government contracts - $2,829 738 0 0 

Other services non-fed'l (includes SMAC)1 - $22,230 1,516 5,561 13,331

Operation & Maintenance of equipment - $4,839 1,024 0 0 

Medical fees - $2,152 (922) 0 0 

Training - $776 294 0 0 

Maintenance of facilities2 - $3,228 755 0 0 

1 At all budget levels, funding for contractual services will 

be offset by the SMAC reimbursement contract in the 

amount of $18 million.

2 Funding for operation & maintenance of facilities in 

fiscal year 2019 may be partly offset by "no-year" money 

brought forward from prior fiscal years pursuant to P.L. 

107-217. 
Explanation of Changes Between the Estimated Budget for Fiscal Year 2018, and Budget 

Levels for Fiscal Year 2019

Limitation of Administration, Direct Obligations (Dollars in Thousands)

- 27 -

Category

FY 2019 OMB 

Guidance

FY 2019 OMB 

Guidance with 

5% 

Investment

FY 2019 

Agency 

Request

(2,275) 5,561 25,720

10. Supplies and materials (61) 0 0 

At all funding levels, supplies and materials total 

$720,000. The amount represents a decrease of $61,000

from fiscal year 2018. 

11. Equipment 1,054 0 0 

At all funding levels, equipment totals $1,276,000 for 

fiscal year 2019, an increase of $1,054,000 from fiscal 

year 2018. The funding is for replacement of IT software, 

parts, devices and other miscellaneous equipment needed 

by the bureaus and offices.

Total Increase/Decrease (2,275) 5,561 25,720
- 28 -

Positions in the Office of Inspector General are excluded.

a/ Amounts for each year include staffing reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services.

b/ FTEs reflect estimates in the House Mark (H.R. 115-244) budget for fiscal year 2018.

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Summary of Full-Time Equivalent Employment a/

Series Rank

FY 2017

actual

FY 2018 b/

estimate

FY 2019

OMB

Guidance

Level

FY 2019

OMB

Guidance

Plus 5%

Investment

Level

FY 2019

Agency

Request

Level

Executive Level III 0 1 1 1 1

Level IV 2 2 2 2 2

Subtotal 2 3 3 3 3

Senior Executive Service ES-00 6 7 7 7 7

Subtotal 6 7 7 7 7

General Schedule/Management GS/GM-15 35 32 27 27 34 

GS/GM-14 64 60 50 50 62 

GS/GM-13 101 96 90 90 100 

GS-12 213 202 186 186 211 

GS-11 114 111 98 98 115 

GS-10 117 114 98 98 119 

GS-9 59 57 46 46 59 

GS-8 40 38 27 27 39 

GS-7 54 52 45 45 53 

GS-6 7 7 6 6 7 

GS-5 12 10 41 41 11 

GS-4 28 29 20 20 30 

GS-3 0 0 0 0 0 

GS-2 0 0 0 0 0 

Subtotal 844 808 734 734 840 

Combined Total 852 818 744 744 850

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 29 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Full-Time Equivalent Employees by Organization

Organization FY 2017 1/ FY 2018 

House Mark 2/

FY 2019 

OMB

Guidance 

Level

FY 2019 

Guidance 

Plus 5% 

Investment 

Level

FY 2019 

Agency 

Request 

Level

Chairman 1.00 -- -- -- --

Labor 7.00 -- -- -- --

Management 5.00 -- -- -- --

Subtotal, Board 13.00 -- -- -- --

General Counsel/Law 15.52 -- -- -- --

Hearings and Appeals 9.00 -- -- -- --

Legislative Affairs 3.00 -- -- -- --

Secretary to the Board 2.00 -- -- -- --

Subtotal, General Counsel 29.52 -- -- -- --

Office of Programs 311.23 -- -- -- --

CFO/Fiscal Operations 54.47 -- -- -- --

Actuary 18.25 -- -- -- --

Office of Administration 64.55 -- -- -- --

Field Service 239.66

Information Services 121.18

Total 851.86 818 744 744 850

1/ Amounts reflect projected use as of August 2, 2017. The RRB’s fiscal year 2017 budget includes funding 

for 853 FTEs. 

2/ Reflects projected total FTE staffing at the House Mark (H.R. 115-244) of $113.5 million. 

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 30 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Narrative Description of Strategic Goals

The RRB’s budget request for ongoing operations is distributed between two areas that match the 

goals stated in the agency’s Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2014−2018:

Strategic Goal I. Provide excellent customer service.

Strategic Goal II. Serve as responsible stewards for our customers’ trust funds and agency

resources.

Amounts requested by the RRB represent the resources needed to achieve the performance goals 

stated in the RRB’s Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2019. Activities in each area are described 

in the following sections. The Performance Plan contains additional information concerning 

performance indicators for each goal.

I. Provide Excellent Customer Service.

Regarding the RRB’s strategic goal of providing excellent customer service, strategic objectives 

and supporting initiatives in the RRB’s Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2019 include the 

following:

I-A. Pay benefits timely.

 Ensure accurate, up-to-date, accessible instructions to support our front-line 

employees as they provide customer support.

 Inform our customers about their responsibilities.

 Ensure that the Customer Service Plan is comprehensive and is revised when 

appropriate.

 Promote direct deposit for benefit payments.

 Monitor key payment workloads.

 Allocate resources effectively. 

I-B. Provide a range of choices in service delivery methods.

 Increase opportunities for our customers to conduct business in a secure manner 

over the Internet.

 Continue to develop electronic services that enable the employer to conduct 

daily business transactions and file required reports in an efficient, effective and 

secure manner.

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 31 -

II. Serve as Responsible Stewards for Our Customers’ Trust Funds and Agency Resources.

Regarding the RRB’s strategic goal of safeguarding our customers’ trust funds through prudent 

stewardship, strategic objectives and supporting initiatives in the RRB’s Performance Plan for 

Fiscal Year 2017 include the following:

II-A. Ensure that trust fund assets are protected, collected, recorded and reported 

appropriately.

 Continue to issue annual audited financial statements.

 Monitor the solvency of the trust funds through a sound program of actuarial 

valuations and financial projections.

 Correctly estimate the amounts needed for future benefit payments.

 Verify that payroll taxes are fully collected and properly recorded.

 Issue accurate, timely determinations and notices of contribution rates required 

under the unemployment and sickness insurance program.

 Continue to carry out the RRB’s debt management policy.

II-B. Ensure the accuracy and integrity of benefit programs.

 Monitor payment accuracy and the levels of improper payments, and identify 

problems.

 Provide feedback and take additional preventive actions as appropriate.

 Maintain established matching programs.

 Continue our program integrity reviews.

II-C. Ensure effectiveness, efficiency and security of operations.

 Continue to develop an effective human capital planning program.

 Monitor and improve program performance and accountability.

 Ensure the privacy and security of our customers’ transactions with the RRB.

 Expand our participation in E-Government initiatives.

 Improve our ability to control and monitor information technology investments.

 Make greater use of performance-based contracts.

 Comply with new security requirements for employee identification.

II-D. Effectively carry out responsibilities with respect to the National Railroad 

Retirement Investment Trust.

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 32 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Appropriation Request by Strategic Goal

The RRB Performance Budget for Fiscal Year 2019 contains a discussion of the administration 

of the railroad retirement/survivor and unemployment/sickness insurance benefit programs. The 

tables on the following pages identify the estimated costs of administering these programs in 

terms of the following strategic goals:

 I. Customer service

II. Stewardship

These goals are consistent with the RRB’s Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2014−2018. 

Projections for the fiscal year 2019 budget reflect three funding levels, as follows: 

 The OMB Guidance level of the budget provides $111,255,000 for fiscal year 2019, and 

represents the same budget level enacted for fiscal year 2017. This level would fund 744

FTEs to administer the benefit programs and provides no funding for agency or 

information technology initiatives. To get to the 744 FTE level, the RRB would have to 

evaluate all available options to include attrition, buyouts, furloughs, and reduction in 

force.

 The 5 percent increase for investment level of the budget provides $116,786,000 for 

fiscal year 2019. This level would fund 744 FTEs and provide $5,561,250 for agency

and information technology initiatives ($2,400,000 would be dedicated to Enterprise 

Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) and $3,161,000 for Legacy Systems Modernization

Services (LSMS)). Again, the RRB would have to evaluate all available options to 

include attrition, buyouts, furloughs, and reduction in force to get to the 744 FTE level.

 The agency request level totals $142,506,000 for fiscal year 2019. This level would fund 

850 FTEs and provide $18,892,000 for agency and information technology initiatives. 

This budget level would allow the agency to fully support our proposals as put forth in 

our Agency Reform Plan in accordance with OMB Guidance M-17-22.

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 33 -

Summary of Strategic Goal Amounts

Budget Account - Limitation on Administration (60-8237-0-7-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

2019

OMB 

Guidance

OMB 

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment Agency Request

Fiscal Year/Level 2017 2018 Level Level Level

Budget authority...................................................... 113,500 113,500 111,225 116,786 142,506

Outlays..................................................................... 113,500 113,500 111,225 116,786 142,506

Full-time equivalent employment............................ 853 818 744 744 850

Fiscal Year 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Budget authority:

OMB Guidance level............................... 111,225 111,225 111,225 111,225 111,225 111,225

OMB Guidance w/5% Investment level......... 116,786 116,786 116,786 116,786 116,786 116,786

Request level.......................................... * * * * * *

Outlays:

OMB Guidance level................................ 111,225 111,225 111,225 111,225 111,225 111,225

OMB Guidance w/5% Investment level ........ 116,786 116,786 116,786 116,786 116,786 116,786

Request level........................................... * * * * * *

* Amounts for these years are to be determined.

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)
- 34 -

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)

Strategic Goal - Customer Service

Budget Account - Limitation on Administration (60-8237-0-7-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

2019

OMB 

Guidance

OMB 

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

Agency 

Request

Fiscal Year/Level 2017 2018 Level Level Level

Budget authority.......................................... 89,565 86,474 85,566 89,857 109,700

Outlays........................................................ 89,565 86,474 85,566 89,857 109,700

Full-time equivalent employment................ 652 621 558 558 637

Fiscal Year 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Budget authority:

OMB Guidance level................................ 85,566 85,566 85,566 85,566 85,566 85,566

OMB Guidance w/Investment level (5%)............................... 89,857 89,857 89,857 89,857 89,857 89,857

Request level................................. * * * * * *

Outlays:

OMB Guidance level................................ 85,566 85,566 85,566 85,566 85,566 85,566

OMB Guidance w/Investment level (5%)............................... 89,857 89,857 89,857 89,857 89,857 89,857

Request level................................. * * * * * *

* Amounts for these years are to be determined.
- 35 - OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)

Strategic Goal - Stewardship

Budget Account - Limitation on Administration (60-8237-0-7-601)

Analysis of Resources

(in thousands of dollars)

2019

OMB 

Guidance

OMB 

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

Agency 

Request

Fiscal Year/Level 2017 2018 Level Level Level

Budget authority.......................................... 23,935 24,751 25,659 26,929 32,806

Outlays........................................................ 23,935 24,751 25,659 26,929 32,806

Full-time equivalent employment................ 201 197 186 186 213

Fiscal Year 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Budget authority:

OMB Guidance level................................ 25,659 25,659 25,659 25,659 25,659 25,659

OMB Guidance w/Investment level (5%)............................... 26,929 26,929 26,929 26,929 26,929 26,929

Request level................................. * * * * * *

Outlays:

OMB Guidance level................................ 25,659 25,659 25,659 25,659 25,659 25,659

OMB Guidance w/Investment level (5%)............................... 26,929 26,929 26,929 26,929 26,929 26,929

Request level................................. * * * * * *

* Amounts for these years are to be determined.
- 36 -

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)

Retirement/Survivor Benefit Program

Summary Processing Workload Table

Fiscal years

Average 

number of 

annuitants

New 

applications

Supplemental

annuity

applications

Social 

Security 

initial

awards 1

Post-payment 

adjustments

Number 

of 

payments

Medicare 

enrollments 2

2006 582,995 35,617 7,794 6,065 94,108 7,426,518 4,838

2007 3 571,271 37,134 9,345 5,965 113,489 7,349,904 5,188

2008 562,347 36,909 9,176 6,010 99,525 7,191,744 5,686

2009 554,124 37,248 9,725 8,128 110,534 7,104,066 5,235

2010 549,154 37,384 9,581 12,563 120,102 7,055,426 5,204

2011 544,256 37,231 9,743 9,275 93,425 7,011,155 5,803

2012 540,080 35,856 9,341 9,342 85,206 6,967,676 6,522

2013 534,982 36,041 9,075 3,116 80,786 6,921,034 6,306

2014 530,367 35,368 8,802 3,124 76,440 6,864,029 6,270

2015 526,487 34,234 8,145 3,417 66,316 6,825,427 6,851

2016 522,839 33,019 7,497 3,739 74,056 6,779,413 6,573

2017 (est) 520,400 32,000 6,000 3,000 74,000 6,730,000 6,000

2018 (est) 516,800 31,000 5,000 3,000 73,000 6,680,000 6,000

2019 (est) 512,500 30,000 4,000 3,000 72,000 6,630,000 6,000

1/ Beginning in fiscal year 2013, Social Security initial awards no longer include mechanical adjustments.

2/ Excludes attainments.

3/ Post-payment adjustments reflect 21,358 receipts due to the processing of special adjustments for annuity 

increases resulting from changes in retirement service and earnings credits reported by railroad employers 

over a period of several years.
- 37 -

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)

Railroad Unemployment/Sickness Insurance Program

Summary Processing Workload Table

Unemployment insurance Sickness insurance

Fiscal Years

Railroad 

employment 

1/

Applications Claims Payments Applications Claims Payments

2006 236,000 11,186 64,697 53,781 25,866 155,525 133,519

2007 237,000 13,002 71,156 58,385 22,996 148,607 127,372

2008 235,000 13,483 79,016 65,388 21,932 140,788 120,498

2009 223,000 39,509 230,476 198,230 2/ 21,466 138,993 118,770

2010 221,000 18,721 210,965 190,152 3/ 21,476 139,653 119,426

2011 229,000 12,756 93,598 83,144 4/ 20,797 136,014 115,705

2012 234,000 12,914 83,120 72,776 5/ 20,240 129,318 110,154

2013 237,000 14,944 96,871 84,365 6/ 19,110 119,364 100,951

2014 242,000 11,982 77,580 64,864 6/ 19,335 120,838 102,020

2015 247,000 14,177 67,643 55,368 19,467 121,271 102,540

2016 225,000 (est) 24,371 145,605 120,134 20,219 131,575 111,933

2017 (est) 221,000 26,000 142,000 117,000 21,000 129,000 110,000

2018 (est) 217,000 20,000 113,000 93,000 19,000 120,000 102,000

2019 (est) 214,000 17,000 96,000 79,000 19,000 120,000 102,000

1/ Average annual railroad employment is based on mid-month counts and presented on a calendar year basis.

2/ Includes unemployment insurance claims and payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 

of 2009 (P.L. 111-5). Benefits had to begin by December 31, 2009.

3/ Includes unemployment insurance claims and payments under P.L. 111-5 and the Worker, 

Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-92). 

4/ Includes unemployment insurance claims and payments under P.L. 111-5, P.L. 111-92, and the Tax 

Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-312).

5/ Includes unemployment insurance claims and payments under P.L. 111-92, P.L. 111-312, the Temporary 

Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-78), and the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job 

Creation Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-96).

6/ Includes unemployment insurance claims and payments under P.L. 111-92, P.L. 111-312, P.L. 112-78, 

P.L. 112-96, and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-240). Benefits had to begin by 

December 31, 2013.
- 38 -

THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
- 39 -

PERFORMANCE

PLAN

 

Fiscal Year 2019

 Railroad Retirement Board
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 40 -

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 41

Mission Statement .................................................................................................................... 42

Strategic Goal I: Provide Excellent Customer Service............................................................ 43

Strategic Objective: Pay benefits timely ........................................................................... 43

Strategic Objective: Provide a range of choices in service delivery methods................... 44

Strategic Goal II: Serve as Responsible Stewards for Our Customers’ Trust Funds 

and Agency Resources ....................................................................................................... 44

 Strategic Objective: Ensure that trust fund assets are protected, collected, 

recorded, and reported appropriately............................................................................ 45

 Strategic Objective: Ensure the accuracy and integrity of benefit programs.................... 45

 Strategic Objective: Ensure effectiveness, efficiency, and security of operations............ 46

 Strategic Objective: Effectively carry out responsibilities with respect to the

National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust........................................................... 50

Information Security Program............................................................................................ 50

Initial Performance Plan - FY 2019.......................................................................................... 52
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 41 -

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)

Introduction

The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) has developed this performance budget for fiscal year 

2019 to support our mission (see mission statement on the following page) and to 

communicate our intentions for meeting challenges and seeking opportunities. We will use 

the plan to hold managers accountable for achieving program results and to improve program 

effectiveness and public accountability by promoting a continued focus on results, service 

quality, and customer satisfaction. We will also use the plan to help managers improve 

service delivery by requiring that they plan for meeting program objectives and by providing 

them with information about program results and service quality.

This plan is closely linked to our Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2014 - 2018 and can be 

easily cross-referenced to that plan. The performance budget provides detailed performance 

goals, performance indicators and target levels to guide agency managers as they implement 

our Strategic Plan. It also communicates our plans to our stakeholders, including the railroad 

community, the Administration, the Congress, and other government agencies. It is one part 

of a comprehensive set of interlocking plans that cover all major aspects of agency operations. 

In this plan, we have established specific performance goals (with performance indicators and 

projected performance levels) to be achieved in fiscal year 2018. Additionally, it supports our 

other functional plans required to manage the agency. These functional plans include the 

Customer Service Plan and the Information Technology Capital Plan. These plans 

support the annual submission of the agency budget to the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) and the Congress.

The RRB’s strategic and performance goals are presented in the sections following our 

mission statement. Information on anticipated performance in fiscal year 2019 for each 

performance goal is provided at the OMB Guidance level of $111,225,000, the 5% investment 

level of $116,786,000 and the agency request level of $142,506,000. To provide for ongoing 

improvement in performance and accountability, we will continue to set programmatic goals 

which are aggressive, realistic and accurately measured. We will also ensure that planned 

improvements are transparent and result in meaningful outcomes, and that agency managers 

are accountable for achieving performance goals.

We will also prepare and submit to the President and the Congress a report on program 

performance for fiscal year 2019, as part of our Performance and Accountability Report. The 

report will be reviewed by the RRB’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) to help ensure the 

reliability and utility of our performance information. The reported information will be 

derived from agency systems and will compare the performance goals and indicators to actual 

program performance for the fiscal year.

This performance budget meets the requirements of the GPRA Modernization Act and was 

prepared by RRB employees. 
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 42 -

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD 

MISSION STATEMENT

The RRB’s mission is to administer retirement/survivor and unemployment/sickness 

insurance benefit programs for railroad workers and their families under the Railroad 

Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. These programs provide 

income protection during old age and in the event of disability, death or temporary 

unemployment and sickness. The RRB also administers aspects of the Medicare program 

and has administrative responsibilities under the Social Security Act and the Internal 

Revenue Code. 

In carrying out its mission, the RRB will pay benefits to the right people, in the right 

amounts, in a timely manner, and will take appropriate action to safeguard our customers’ 

trust funds. The RRB will treat every person who comes into contact with the agency with 

courtesy and concern, and respond to all inquiries promptly, accurately and clearly.
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 43 -

Strategic Goal I: Provide Excellent Customer Service. We aim to satisfy our customers’ 

expectations for quality service in terms of service delivery options and levels and manner of 

performance. At the OMB Guidance level of the fiscal year 2019 budget, we plan to allocate 

$85,566,000 and 558 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) to this strategic goal; at the plus 

5% investment level, we would dedicate $89,857,000 (includes $4,291,000 for IT 

investments) to customer service; and at the agency request level, we would be able to 

dedicate $109,700,000 and 637 FTEs to customer service. We have established two 

performance goals that focus on the specifics of achieving this strategic goal.

Strategic Objective: Pay benefits timely. The RRB is committed to ensuring that we pay 

benefits in a timely manner. We have nine objectives in place to track the timeliness of the 

actions we take in a year regarding both Railroad Retirement Act (RRA) and Railroad 

Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA) programs. In addition, we will:

• Ensure accurate, up-to-date, accessible instructions to support our front-line 

employees as they provide customer support.

• Inform our customers about their responsibilities.

• Ensure that the Customer Service Plan is comprehensive and is revised when 

appropriate.

• Promote direct deposit for benefit payments.

• Monitor key payment workloads.

• Allocate resources effectively.

Our Customer Service Plan includes customer 

service timeliness standards for paying benefits. 

Through March 31, 2017 the overall actual 

performance was 99.0 percent. This means that 

customers received benefit services within the 

timeframes promised in the Customer Service 

Plan for 99 percent of the 162,599 service 

transactions for which timeliness was 

measured. 

The inset at the right shows composite results in 

four combined categories of services.

Communications with RRB customers

In addition to making payments, we provide a variety of information to our customers. We 

provide general information through our website, publications, and our toll-free number. We 

also provide information to individuals through annual statements of wages and 

compensation, annuity estimates, notices of annuity and benefit awards and changes, annual 

income tax statements, and answers to questions regarding benefits. In addition, we use an 

Overall Timeliness Performance

Fiscal Year 2017 (through 3/31/2017)

• Retirement applications: 95.0% 

 (target: 95.0%)

• Survivor applications: 95.7%

 (target: 95.3%)

• Disability applications/payments: 

55.5% (target: 82.8%)

• RUIA applications/claims: 99.9%

 (target: 99.5%)
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 44 -

on-line presentation facility called RRBVision to provide information and training to the 

public and rail employers.

Strategic Objective: Provide a range of choices in service delivery methods. To fulfill 

customers’ needs, we must provide high quality, accurate services on a timely basis, and in 

ways that are accessible and convenient to all our customers, including the elderly and those 

with impairments. Consistent with our vision statement, we strive to provide a broad range of 

choices for customer service. Our level of performance will be measured by how well we 

succeed in providing the level of service our customers expect, and by the number of new 

electronic services we can provide in each program at a reasonable cost. Our goal is to 

expand customer choice by offering alternative access to our major services. To achieve our 

goals in this area, we plan to:

• Increase opportunities for our customers to conduct business in a secure manner over 

the Internet.

• Continue to develop electronic services that enable the employer to conduct daily 

business transactions and file required reports in an efficient, effective and secure 

manner. 

To date, a total of 27 automated ERSNet services exist for employers to notify, request or 

provide a means for correcting and transmitting data electronically to and from the Railroad 

Retirement Board (RRB). Two additional services will be added this year with the 

completion and implementation of the Form G-73a.1, Notice of Death of Annuitant and the 

Form RL-5a, Notice of Annuity Award bring the total number of available services to 29 in 

the ERSNet system.

The RRB will continue to pursue enhancements in fiscal year 2018 with the development and 

implementation of the Form G-251A, Job Information Report and the Form G-117a, 

Designation of Contact Officials. This will add two additional services to the system. 

In fiscal year 2019, RRB in-house staff will develop on-line ERSNet processes for the Form 

RL-13g, Notice to Employer of relinquishment of Rights of Disability Annuitant Who 

Attained Age 65 and the AESOP, Employee Retirement Estimate File. 

Strategic Goal II: Serve as Responsible Stewards for Our Customers’ Trust Funds and 

Agency Resources. The RRB is committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities to the 

rail community. At the OMB Guidance level of the fiscal year 2019 budget, we plan to 

allocate $25,659,000 and 186 FTEs to this strategic goal; at the plus 5% investment level, we 

would dedicate $26,929,000 (includes $1,270,000 for IT investments)to stewardship; and at 

the agency request level, we would be able to dedicate $32,806,000 and 213 FTEs to 

stewardship. 
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 45 -

We have established four performance goals that focus on the specifics of achieving this 

strategic goal.

Strategic Objective: Ensure that trust fund assets are protected, collected, recorded and 

reported appropriately. The RRB is committed to prudent management of its trust funds. 

Our success in this objective is reflected through annual audited financial statements, actuarial 

valuations, financial projections, benefit payment accuracy, debt collection, experience-based 

contribution rates, and payroll tax and railroad employee compensation reconciliations. We 

also have responsibilities with regard to the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust, 

which are addressed under performance goal II-D. To accomplish this commitment, we will:

• Continue to issue annual audited financial statements.

• Monitor the solvency of the trust funds through a sound program of actuarial 

valuations and financial projections. 

• Correctly estimate the amounts needed for future benefit payments. 

• Verify that payroll taxes are fully collected and properly recorded.

• Issue accurate, timely determinations and notices of contribution rates required under 

the unemployment and sickness insurance program. 

• Continue to carry out the RRB’s debt management policy.

In November 2016, we released our Performance and Accountability Report for fiscal year 

2016. The RRB’s OIG did not express an opinion (disclaimer) on the RRB’s 2016 financial 

statements, which were included in that report. The OIG reported material weaknesses in the 

RRB’s financial reporting. Significant efforts are underway to strengthen controls in this 

area.

Strategic Objective: Ensure the accuracy and integrity of benefit programs. The 

principal indicators of accuracy are the benefit payment accuracy rates in each program. Our 

performance goal is to ensure that we can continue to meet or exceed 99 percent payment 

accuracy in the payments we initiate or manually adjust in a given year. To accomplish this 

goal, we will:

• Monitor payment accuracy and the levels of improper payments, and identify problems.

• Provide feedback and take additional preventive actions as appropriate.

• Maintain established matching programs.

• Continue our program integrity reviews.

Under the Improper Payments Information Act (IPIA) of 2002, and the Improper Payments 

Elimination and Recovery Act (IPERA) of 2010, the RRB reviews and reports on the amount 

of erroneous payments and engages in activities to reduce them. Since improper payment 

reporting began, the amounts attributable to the RRB’s two benefit programs (the RRA and 

the RUIA) have been below the definition of “significant” improper payments identified in 

the law and related guidance issued by OMB.
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 46 -

As part of our fiduciary responsibilities to the rail community, we must ensure that the correct 

benefit amounts are being paid to the right people. We match our benefit payments against 

the Social Security Administration’s earnings and benefits database, the Centers for Medicare 

& Medicaid Services' death records, the Office of Personnel Management’s benefit records, 

and State wage reports, exclusively via secure electronic transmissions. We also administer 

other benefit monitoring programs to identify and prevent erroneous payments, and refer 

some cases to the RRB’s OIG for investigation. After investigation, the Inspector General 

may pursue more aggressive actions, which include civil and criminal prosecution.

We measure the effectiveness of the program integrity efforts each year by comparing the 

dollars identified as improper payments and saved through these initiatives to their cost. For 

example, in fiscal year 2016, the RRB invested the equivalent of about 29 full-time 

employees, at a cost of approximately $2.8 million, in program integrity efforts. This resulted 

in over $10.3 million in recoverables, $1,588,723 in benefits saved, and the referral of 22

cases to the OIG for investigation. This is approximately $4.18 in savings for each $1.00 

invested in these activities.

Strategic Objective: Ensure effectiveness, efficiency and security of operations. How we 

do our business is a critical component of good stewardship. The RRB is committed to 

effective, efficient and secure internal operations. Many factors and programs contribute to 

this goal. We use our management control review process as a means of reviewing critical 

agency processes in order to provide reasonable assurance of the effectiveness and efficiency 

of our programs and operations. If material weaknesses are detected, we take corrective 

action. In addition, we perform a variety of quality assurance activities to ensure that our 

benefit programs comply with established policies, standards and procedures. We consider 

the findings from these reviews as we plan our information technology initiatives. 

In support of the Administration’s direction to agencies to assess the effectiveness of current 

information technology (IT) management practices and address opportunities to improve 

management of IT resources we added measurements based on the PorfoliStat categories 

Deliver, Innovate and Protect. The measurements ensure that the agency engages in proactive 

performance management of its IT.

• Deliver – Deliver on Budget Percent of IT Projects costs within 10% of budgeted 

costs.

• Deliver – Meet Customer Expectations. WWW.RRB.GOV Internet Services (Mainline 

and Employer Reporting System) Continuous availability experienced by end users.

• Innovate – Design for Modularity. Strategy for Continuity of Operations 

Improvements.

• Protect – Email Data Loss Prevention. Percentage of externally bound emails and 

their attachments automatically encrypted that contain personally identifiable or 

credit card information.
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 47 -

• Protect –Percentage of agency employees required to use a Personal Identity 

Verification (PIV) card to authenticate.

The measurements ensure that the agency engages in proactive performance management of 

information technology by ensuring effectiveness, efficiency and security of operations. The 

use of performance measures and management processes allows the RRB to monitor actual 

versus expected results, while also providing appropriate oversight and quality control. The 

status of each measure is captured and evaluated monthly by those responsible for overseeing 

the measure, evaluated quarterly by the Office of the Chief Information Officer to ensure that 

the activity is meeting the expected measure, and reported annually in the agency’s fiscal year 

performance plan. 

In addition to our ongoing activities, during the planning period we will continue to 

emphasize key areas related to strategic management of human capital, improving program 

performance and accountability, and systems security.

RRB Plan to Maximize Employee Performance

Like many agencies, the RRB has an aging workforce. Almost 50 percent of our employees 

have 20 or more years of service and over 31 percent of the current workforce will be eligible 

for retirement by fiscal year 2019. To prepare for the expected turnover while adhering to the 

Administration’s “Comprehensive Plan for Reforming the Federal Government and Reducing 

the Federal Civilian Workforce”, the agency is placing increased emphasis on maximizing 

employee performance. The Railroad Retirement Board’s (RRB’s) plan to maximize 

employee performance consists of two separate yet interrelated plans – The Human Capital 

Analysis Plan and the Plan to Maximize Employee Performance. By improving the 

organization’s effectiveness and workforce management, RRB will better utilize the Federal 

workforce and manage our limited human capital resources. By strategically evaluating the 

positions within the RRB, we can then focus on maximizing employee performance. 

Maximizing employee performance focuses on an ever-evolving evaluation and 

implementation of an effective performance management system and an on-going evaluation 

of RRB’s human resources within the Agency. This includes ensuring an efficient and 

effective workforce, setting an achievable and high level of performance expectations for 

employees, ensuring accountability for managing performance, as well as rehabilitating poor 

performers and/or removing employees unable to perform at an acceptable level of 

competence. 

Human Capital Analysis Plan

Human Capital Analysis consists of a series of steps that would help guide organizational 

design and position structure, keep positions current, and assist in maximizing employee 

performance. This methodology develops the resources and data necessary to continuously 

analyze the RRB workforce and ensure prudent, fiscally responsible personnel and 

organizational decisions.
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 48 -

• Job Analysis - conduct job analysis according to accepted practice to identify critical 

competencies for each position and grade within the RRB. This process will create an 

up-to-date position repository on which all other Human Capital Analysis Plan steps 

are based. Additionally, accurate job analysis is legally defensible and can be utilized 

in staffing, Human Resource Development (HRD), and performance management 

efforts.

• Competency Model Development – develop an RRB competency model utilizing job 

analysis information to identify agency competencies, position competencies, 

leadership/management competencies, and executive competencies. Each individual 

competency will be behaviorally defined at five proficiency levels and include 

example work behaviors. The use of previously validated or developed models will 

also be used to reduce project time.

• Skill Gap Analysis –job analysis and competency model development will identify 

the knowledge and skills need to perform a given position and at what proficiency 

level. A Skill Gap Analysis will be conducted based on this information to determine 

the gap between knowledge and skills necessary and those currently possessed at the 

agency and/or individual level.

• Training Needs and Career Development Analysis –Skill Gap Analysis results will 

identify knowledge and skill deficiencies throughout the agency. Utilizing those 

results, a Training Needs Analysis will be conducted to identify critical developmental 

needs and provide necessary training opportunities to improve. Additional work will 

be completed to better identify career paths within the RRB and necessary 

competencies needed for employees to progress.

Plan to Maximize Employee Performance

In place at the RRB are three distinct performance management systems based on an 

employee’s supervisory status, each 5-tiered performance management system is listed below:

• Bargaining/non-bargaining unit employees,

• supervisors/managers, and

• SES employees 

In the bargaining/non bargaining performance system, modifications to performance 

standards must be reviewed by Human Resources (HR functions are centralized to Chicago, 

IL) prior to implementation. In reviewing performance standard changes and submissions, 

HR Employee Relations specialists utilize a performance standard checklist as well as OPM’s 

handbook for measuring employee performance as a guide when assisting 

supervisors/managers in developing and implementing meaningful and relevant performance 

standards.
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 49 -

In FY15, RRB performed a 100% review of performance evaluations. The review was 

conducted to ensure compliance with RRB policy and to identify and correct deficiencies or 

errors in the evaluation. In addition, managers and supervisors are reminded to review and/or 

update performance standards whenever they are looking to post a vacancy announcement. In 

FY16, RRB conducted a random sample (with 95% confidence level and 5% allowed margin 

of error) of performance evaluations to ensure compliance with RRB policy and correct any 

deficiencies. In addition, the sample provided valuable feedback and opportunity for HR to 

follow-up with managers and supervisors to address unacceptable performance ratings. 

Regardless of the applicable performance management system in question, performance 

management at the RRB is aimed at improving individual and organizational effectiveness by 

relating pay levels, pay adjustments and awards to individual and organizational performance. 

Performance management is deemed essential at the RRB and is viewed as a continuous 

process given performance management related decisions have the potential to impact other 

personnel actions (e.g. within-grade-increases, career options, career ladder promotions, 

work-at-home eligibility, training opportunities, overtime qualification considerations, 

demotion, retention and reduction-in-force (RIF) rights.) 

Effective performance management at the RRB provides an objective means of measuring 

actual work performance by considering factors such as; organizational mission, functional 

delegation, position descriptions, general output requirements of the position, critical 

elements, performance standards, job performance, performance appraisal, performance 

feedback, etc.

Systems Modernization – The RRB has taken significant strategic steps to improve its 

computer processes, first by moving to a relational database environment, and next by 

optimizing the data that resides in its databases. The next strategic step is to take advantage 

of the optimized relational database structure to modernize the agency’s computer systems 

and automate manual processes that support such systems.

The data optimization process and the agency’s own analysis have pointed out opportunities 

for modernization. Because of the complexity and size of this project, we are taking a multiyear / multi-phased approach. The underlying principle is that modernization is not reengineering a particular application or system; it involves a holistic approach to building an 

information infrastructure to support the RRB’s critical business processes. 

In addition to modernizing the agency’s mainframe based computer programs, there are 28 

old LAN-based computer programs in need of modernization. Although functioning, these 

outdated systems are becoming more difficult to maintain under the newer server platforms 

and operating systems. 

In fiscal year 2018, the RRB will begin the second of two phases to re-engineer critical legacy 

applications to sustain agency operations and enable a “future ready” RRB workforce. 
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 50 -

Phase 2 success criteria:

By modernizing its systems, the RRB will ultimately decrease the time and cost to develop 

and operate the systems, allowing us to focus on new initiatives that will improve business 

practices and control costs.

RRB staff will be equipped with modern tools and technologies to do their jobs in the most 

efficient and effective manner that leads to sustained customer satisfaction in the railroad 

community we serve.

Strengthening IT Portfolio Management – In support of the Administration’s direction to 

agencies to assess the effectiveness of current information technology (IT) management 

practices and address opportunities to improve management of IT resources. The 

measurements ensure that the agency engages in proactive performance management of its IT.

Strategic Objective: Effectively carry out responsibilities with respect to the National 

Railroad Retirement Investment Trust. Although the RRB no longer has primary 

responsibility for the investment of the trust fund monies, it continues to have responsibilities 

in ensuring that the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (NRRIT), and its sevenmember Board of Trustees, comply with the provisions of the Railroad Retirement Act. This 

responsibility will be fulfilled through review of the monthly, quarterly and annually 

submitted reports by the NRRIT, and its auditors’ reports. In addition, the RRB’s Board 

Members and General Counsel meet twice annually with the Trustees and receive detailed 

briefings during periodic telephone conferences.

The RRB has authority to bring civil action should it detect any violation of the Railroad 

Retirement Act or non-compliance with any provisions of that Act.

To facilitate coordination among the NRRIT and Federal Government organizations, the 

Department of the Treasury, OMB, NRRIT and RRB have entered into a voluntary 

memorandum of understanding concerning budgetary, accounting and financial reporting 

responsibilities.

Information Security Program

Information security is a critical consideration for government agencies where maintaining the 

public’s trust is essential. The RRB relies extensively on computerized systems to support its 

mission operations and store the sensitive information that it collects. The RRB’s information 

security program is established and maintained to reasonably protect systems data and 

resources against internal failures, human errors, attacks and natural catastrophes that might 

cause improper disclosure, modification, destruction, or denial of services.
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

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We continued to make progress towards a compliant Information Security program to 

improve the RRB's security posture. RRB has implemented an Information Security 

Continuous Monitoring (ISCM) Strategy as outlined in OMB Memorandum M-14-03: 

Enhancing the Security of Federal Information and Information Systems. This strategy 

addressed the gaps in the Information Security program. We have partnered with the 

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation 

(CDM) program. This partnership with DHS will further improve our Information Security 

program pertaining to vulnerability assessment, hardware and software management, 

configuration management, and privileged account management. We have also enrolled in 

the DHS EINSTEIN-3 Accelerated (E3A) program that ensures all of the Domain Name 

System (DNS) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) are monitored by these services.

We continue to manage the risk of the critical infrastructure considering asset management, 

remote access, identity management, and network protection. Specifically:

• Assessment Management – we have enrolled in the DHS CDM Continuous 

Monitoring as a Service (CMaaS) to provide better visibility of current hardware and 

software and to automatically detect unauthorized hardware and software. The CDM 

solution is scheduled to be implemented in December 2017.

• Identity Management – we now have a multi-factor authentication solution in place 

and as part of CMaaS, we will be implementing credential management for general 

users and privileged access management for system administrators.

• Remote Access – we deployed managed services for hardware encryption and have 

upgraded our Cisco ASA firewalls to strengthen information security controls for VPN 

remote access.

• Network Protection – as part of CMaaS, we will further improve the Defense in Depth 

configuration in place, namely the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), Network Access 

Control (NAC), and the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM).
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 52 -

Railroad Retirement Board FY 2019

Initial Performance Plan

2014

Actual

($110.3m)

2015 Actual

($111.225m)

2016 Actual

($111.225m)

2017

Actual 1/

($113.5m)

2018 2/

President’s 

Proposed

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance

($111.225m)

2019 OMB

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

($116.786m)

2019 Agency 

Request Level

($142.7m)

STRATEGIC GOAL I: Provide Excellent Customer Service

Strategic Objective: Pay benefits timely.

 Leader for performance goals I-A-1 through I-A-5; I-A-7 and I-A-8: Michael Tyllas, Director of Programs

 Leader for performance goal I-A-6: Dan Fadden, Director of Field Service

 Leader for performance goal I-A-9: Rachel L. Simmons, Director of Hearings and Appeals

I-A-1. RRB makes a decision to pay or deny a 

railroad retirement employee or spouse initial 

annuity application within 35 days of the annuity 

beginning date, if advanced filed.

(Measure: % ≤ 35 days)

95.2% 95.8% 94.0% 94.7% 94.0% 92.0% 94.0% 95.5%

1-A-2. RRB makes a decision to pay or deny a 

railroad retirement employee or spouse initial 

annuity application within 60 days of the date the 

application was filed.

(Measure: % ≤ 60 days)

95.3% 96.5% 96.3% 95.7% 94.0% 92.0% 94.0% 95.5%

I-A-3. RRB makes a decision to pay, deny or 

transfer to SSA an initial annuity application for 

a railroad retirement survivor not already 

receiving a benefit within 60 days of the annuity 

beginning date, or date filed (whichever is later). 

(Measure: % ≤ 60 days)

96.1% 94.3% 96.0% 96.3% 94.0% 92.0% 94.0% 95.5%
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 53 -

Railroad Retirement Board FY 2019

Initial Performance Plan

2014

Actual

($110.3m)

2015 Actual

($111.225m)

2016 Actual

($111.225m)

2017

Actual 1/

($113.5m)

2018 2/

President’s 

Proposed

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

($116.786m)

2019 Agency 

Request Level

($142.7m)

I-A-4. RRB makes a decision to pay, deny or 

transfer to SSA an initial annuity application for a 

railroad retirement survivor already receiving the 

benefits as a spouse within 30 days of the RRB’s 

receipt of first notice of the employee’s death.

(Measure: % ≤ 30 days)

95.5% 95.5% 95.1% 95.1% 93.5% 92.0% 94.0% 95.5%

I-A-5. RRB makes a decision to pay or deny a 

lump sum death benefit within 60 days of the date 

the application was filed. 

(Measure: % ≤ 60 days)

98.4% 98.1% 98.0% 96.8% 97.0% 95.0% 97.0% 98.5%

I-A-6. RRB certifies a payment or releases a letter 

of denial of UI or SI benefits within 10 days of the 

date RRB receives the claim. 

(Measure: % < 10 days)

99.9% 99.9% 99.9% 99.9% 99.0% 95.00% 98.00% 99.00%

I-A-7. RRB makes a decision to pay or deny a 

benefit for a disabled applicant or family member 

within 100 days of the date the application is filed.

(Measure: % ≤ 100 days)

42.8% 31.0% 17.4% 14.2%

Due to ongoing 

process 

improvements, 

RRB is rebaselining this 

metric.3/

Due to ongoing 

process 

improvements 

RRB is rebaselining this 

metric.3/

Due to ongoing

process 

improvements, 

RRB is rebaselining this 

metric.3/

Due to ongoing 

process 

improvements 

RRB is rebaselining this 

metric.3/
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 54 -

Railroad Retirement Board FY 2019

Initial Performance Plan

2014

Actual

($110.3m)

2015 Actual

($111.225m)

2016 Actual

($111.225m)

2017

Actual 1/

($113.5m)

2018 2/

President’s 

Proposed

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance

($111.225m)

2019 OMB

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

($116.786m)

2019

Agency 

Request Level

($142.7m)

I-A-8. RRB makes a payment to a disabled 

applicant within 25 days of the date of decision or 

earliest payment date, whichever is later. 

(Measure: % < 25 days)

95.6% 95.8% 92.6% 93.4% 93.5% 92.0% 94.0% 95.5%

I-A-9. Reduce the number of days elapsed 

between the date the appeal is filed and a decision 

is rendered. (Measure: average elapsed days)

270 261 239 221 250 230 235 230

Strategic Objective: Provide a range of choices in service delivery methods.

 Goal leader: Michael Tyllas, Director of Programs

I-B-1. Offer electronic options to our customers, 

allowing them alternative ways to perform primary 

services via the Internet or interactive voice 

response systems. (Measure: Number of services 

available through electronic media)

19

services 

available

19

services 

available

19 

services 

available

19

services 

available

20

services 

available

21

services 

available

21

services 

available

21

services 

available
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 55 -

Railroad Retirement Board FY 2019

Initial Performance Plan

2014 Actual

($110.3m)

2015 Actual

($111.225m)

2016 Actual

($111.225m)

2017

Actual 1/

($113.5m)

2018 2/

President’s 

Proposed

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

($116.786m)

2019 Agency 

Request Level

($142.7m)

I-B-2. Enable employers to 

use the Internet to conduct 

business with the RRB, in 

support of the Government 

Paperwork Elimination Act.

(Measures: percentage of 

employers who use the online Employer Reporting 

System (ERS); number of 

services available through 

electronic media)

a) Employers 

using ERS: 98.3% 99.0% 99.0% 99.0% 99.0% 99.0% 99.0% 99.0%

b) Internet 

Services

26

Internet 

services 

available

27

Internet

services 

available

27

Internet

services 

available

27

Internet

services 

available

31

Internet

services 

available

33

Internet

services 

available

33

Internet

services 

available

33

Internet

services 

available

STRATEGIC GOAL II: Serve as Responsible Stewards for Our Customers’ Trust Funds and Agency Resources

Strategic Objective: Ensure that trust fund assets are protected, collected, recorded, and reported appropriately.

 Goal leader: Shawna Weekley, Deputy Chief Financial Officer

II-A-1. Debts will be collected through billing, 

offset, reclamation, referral to outside 

collection programs, and a variety of other 

collection efforts. (Measure: total 

overpayments recovered in the fiscal year/total 

overpayments established in the fiscal year.)

91.3% 99.6% 90.73% 87.72% 85.0% 85.0% 85.0% 85.0%
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 56 -

Railroad Retirement Board FY 2019

Initial Performance Plan

2014

Actual

($110.3m)

2015 Actual

($111.225m)

2016 Actual

($111.225m)

2017

Actual 1/

($113.5m)

2018 2/

President’s 

Proposed

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

($116.786m)

2019 Agency 

Request Level

($142.7m)

Strategic Objective: Ensure the accuracy and integrity of benefit programs.

 Goal leader II-B-1 (a)(b) and II-B 3, 4 and 5: Michael Tyllas, Director of Programs

 Goal leader II-B-2 (a): Dan Fadden, Director of Field Service

 Goal leader II-B-2(b): Micheal Pawlak, Director of Unemployment Payment Support Division

II-B-1. Achieve a 

railroad retirement 

benefit payment 

accuracy rate 4/ of at 

least 99%.

(Measure: percent 

accuracy rate)

a. Initial 

payments

99.52% 99.72% 99.69% N/A 99.50% 99.50% 99.60% 99.75%

b. Sample post 

recurring 

payments

100% 99.91% 99.70% N/A 99.50% 99.50% 99.60% 99.75%

II-B-2. Achieve a 

railroad unemployment/ 

sickness insurance 

benefit payment 

accuracy rate 4/ of at 

least 99%.

(Measure: percent 

accuracy rate)

a. Unemployment 99.83% 99.23% 99.36% 96.91% 99.50% 95.00% 98.00% 99.00%

b. Sickness 99.52% 99.40% 99.94% 99.15% 99.50% 95.00% 97.50% 99.50%

II-B-3. Overall Initial Disability Determination 

Accuracy (Measure: % of Case Accuracy) 98.6%5/ 95.8%5/ N/A N/A 96.0% 93.0% 95.0% 96.0%
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 57 -

Railroad Retirement Board FY 

2019 Initial Performance Plan

2014 Actual

($110.3m)

2015 Actual

($111.225m)

2016 Actual

($111.225m)

2017

Actual 1/

($113.5m)

2018 2/

President’s 

Proposed

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

($116.786m)

2019 Agency 

Request 

Level

($142.7m)

II-B-4. Maintain the level of Railroad 

Retirement Act (RRA) improper payments 

below the OMB threshold.

(Measure: prior to FY14, below 2.5%; 

beginning FY14, below 1.5%)

0.59%6/ 0.58%6/ N/A N/A 1.00% 1.00% 1.00% 1.00%

II-B-5. Achieve a return of at least $3.60 

for each dollar spent on program integrity 

activities.

(Measure recoverable and savings per 

dollar spent.)

$5.20: $1.00 $4.49: $1.00 $4.18: $1.00 N/A $3.857/

: 

$1.00

$3.85:

$1.00 $3.85: $1.00 $3.85: $1.00

Strategic Objective: Ensure effectiveness, efficiency, and security of operations.

 Goal leader: Ram Murthy, Chief Information Officer

II-C-1. Complete modernization of RRB 

processing systems in accordance with 

long-range planning goals.

(Measure: Meet target dates for the project. 

Yes/No)

No. The target 

date for PREH

conversion is

delayed due to 

higher priority

Project (TPAM)

mandated by

US Treasury.

New target:

April 30, 2015

Yes. The target date 

for the RUIA XR

modernization and 

Medicare Database

conversion has been 

met. PREH

conversion is

delayed due to staff 

working on higher

priority project (the 

Disability Program

Improvement Plan). 

The new target date

is September 30, 

2016.

No. The

modernization

of the Tax

Database will

now be

incorporated in 

the multiyear

Mainframe

Applications

Reengineering

project

Project

complete
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 58 -

Railroad Retirement Board FY 

2019 Initial Performance Plan

2014 Actual

($110.3m)

2015 Actual

($111.225m)

2016 Actual

($111.225m)

2017 Actual 1/

($113.5m)

2018 2/

President’s 

Proposed

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

($116.786m)

2019 Agency 

Request Level

($142.7m)

II-C-2. Deliver – Deliver on Budget. 

Percent of IT Projects costs within 10% of 

budgeted cost.

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

100% 100% 85% 85% 85% 85%

II-C-3. Deliver –

Meet Customer 

Expectations. 

WWW.RRB.GOV

Internet Services 

(Mainline and 

employer Reporting 

System) Continuous 

availability 

experienced by end 

users

a) Continuous 

availability 

target

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

98.7% 99.3% 99% 99% 99% 99%

b) Hours of 

outage 

allowed per 

month

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

9.38 hours 6.5 hours 7 hours 7 hours 7 hours 7 hours

II-C-4. Innovate – Design for 

Modularity. Strategy for Continuity of 

Operations Improvements.

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

No

Completed 

applying 

HTTPS-only 

standard to 

www.rrb.gov

Continue 

working on 

application of 

HTTPS-only 

standard to 

www.rrb.gov

Implement 

automatic 

failover of 

email system 

to alternate 

facility

Implement 

automatic 

failover of 

email system 

to alternate 

facility

Implement 

automatic 

failover of 

email system 

to alternate 

facility

II-C-5. Innovate – Adopt New 

Technologies. Percentage of investments 

that evaluated cloud alternatives

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

50% 100% 98.5% 98.5% 98.5% 98.5%
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 59 -

Railroad Retirement Board FY 

2019 Initial Performance Plan

2014 Actual

($110.3m)

2015 Actual

($111.225m)

2016 Actual

($111.225m)

2017 Actual 1/

($113.5m)

2018 2/

President’s 

Proposed

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance

($111.225m)

2019 OMB 

Guidance 

with 5% 

Investment

($116.786m)

2019 Agency 

Request 

Level

($142.7m)

II-C-6. Protect – Email Data Loss 

Prevention. Percentage of externally bound 

emails and their attachments automatically 

encrypted that contain personally 

identifiable or credit card information

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

New 

Performance 

Goal for FY 

2016

99.82% 100% 99% 99% 99% 99%

II-C-7. Protect – Percentage of agency 

employees required to use a Personal 

Identity Verification (PIV) card to 

authenticate. 

New 

Performance 

Goal

New 

Performance 

Goal

74% 78.3

Unprivileged 

Network 

Users ≥85% 

Privileged 

Network 

Users 100%

Unprivileged 

Network 

Users ≥85% 

Privileged 

Network 

Users 100%

Unprivileged 

Network 

Users ≥85% 

Privileged 

Network 

Users 100%

Unprivileged 

Network 

Users ≥85% 

Privileged 

Network 

Users 100%

Strategic objective: Effectively carry out responsibilities with respect to the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust.

 Goal leader: Ana M. Kocur, General Counsel

II-D-1. Timely review information reported 

by the National Railroad Retirement 

Investment Trust to carry out RRB’s 

oversight responsibility under section 15(j) 

(5) (F) of the Railroad Retirement Act. 

Reports are to be reviewed within 30 days 

of receipt.

(Measure: Yes/No)

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Railroad Retirement Board - Fiscal Year 2019 Initial Performance Plan

- 60 -

Footnotes are following:

1/ Actual results represents status as of March 31, 2017, unless otherwise noted. N/A indicates fiscal year 2017 data is not 

available.

2/ Planned amounts reflect the fiscal year 2018 performance targets shown in the RRB’s Congressional Justification of Budget 

Estimates, released May 23, 2017.

3/ DBD is re-baselining the customer service standard. The last known process assessment was conducted in 2010, which noted 

the 2009 performance fell short of the customer service goal by 7.5%. In May 2016, a Gantt analysis identified that the 

disability process takes 245 days for a decision. Based on increased staffing and revised business processes, DBD is 

determining a more appropriate goal.

4/ The payment accuracy rate is the percentage of dollars paid correctly as a result of adjudication actions performed.

5/ FY 2014 performance was used to establish a baseline. No performance goal was established for FY 2015.

6/ Actual IP rates for FY 2014 and 2015 have been adjusted to accurately show that fiscal year data reviewed matches the fiscal 

year data reported.

7/ Our annual goals for FY 2017 and FY 2018 have been adjusted to more closely match the defined performance goal and to be 

more representative of our current return on investment.
- 61 -

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (a) thru (b) (July 2017)
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Information Technology (IT) Table and Capital Plan

FY 2017 – 2022

- 62 -

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)

Priority Information Technology 

Investments FY 2017 a/ FY 2018 b/ FY 2019 c/ FY 2020 FY 2021 FY2022 d/ TOTAL

1 Enterprise Infrastructure 

Solutions (EIS) 0 250,000 2,400,000e/ 200,000 0 0 2,850,000

2 Legacy Systems Modernization 

Services (LSMS) 1,206,091 0 7,280,000e/ 6,510,000 4,480,000 1,590,761 $21,066,852

3 Citizen Services Improvements 0 0 175,000 500,000 750,000 750,000 $2,175,000

4 Electronic Records Utilization 

and Paperless Processing 0 0 2,200,000 0 0 0 $2,200,000

5 Secure Consolidation for 

Mainframe Services 0 0 3,200,000 2,700,000 2,700,000 0 $8,600,000

6 Cybersecurity and Privacy 0 0 1,072,000 750,000 750,000 750,000 3,322,000

7

Financial Management 

Integrated System (FMIS) 

Upgrade

0 0 1,250,000 0 0 0 $1,250,000

8 Records Management System 0 0 1,315,000 0 0 0 $1,315,000

TOTAL $1,206,091 $250,000 $18,892,000 $10,660,000 $8,680,000 $3,090,761 $42,778,852

a/ Amount reflects FY 2017 project spending (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, P.L. 115-31); $6,100,000 was included in the 

Congressional Justification of Budget Estimates for Fiscal Year 2017.

b/ Amount reflects funding included in the Congressional Justification of Budget Estimates for Fiscal Year 2018.

c/ Amounts reflect funding at the agency request level. The chart on the following page shows amounts available for IT investments 

at the OMB Guidance with 5% Investment level. 

d/ Amounts based upon assumption that funding will be received for previous fiscal years.

e/ The EIS project is the top priority for FY 2019 due to the expiration of GSA’s Networx contract and the priority to complete 

transition to GSA’s new contract vehicle by March 2020. The LSMS project is still the first priority for FY 2018 and out years

with the exception of FY 2019.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

- 63 -

OMB A-11 Reference: Section 51.3 (July, 2017)

PRIORITIZED IT INVESTMENTS 

Priority Information Technology Investments a/

FY 2019 OMB 

Guidance with

5% Investment

Increase FY 2019 Agency 

Request Level

1 Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) 2,400,000b/ 0 2,400,000

2 Legacy Systems Modernization Services

(LSMS) 3,161,000b/ 4,119,000 7,280,000

3 Citizen Services Improvements 0 175,000 175,000

4 Electronic Records Utilization and 

Paperless Processing 0 2,200,000 2,200,000

5 Secure Consolidation for Mainframe 

Services 0 3,200,000 3,200,000

6 Cybersecurity and Privacy 0 1,072,000 1,072,000

7 Financial Management Integrated System 

(FMIS) 0 1,250,000 1,250,000

8 Records Management System 0 1,315,000 1,315,000

TOTAL $5,561,000 13,331,000 $18,892,000

a/ These prioritize items represent the Agency’s investment strategy for any additional funding received over and above the OMB 

Guidance level. 

b/ The EIS project is the top priority for FY 2019 due to the expiration of GSA’s Networx contract and the priority to complete transition to the 

new contract vehicle by March 2020. The LSMS project is still the first priority for FY 2018 and out years, with the exception of FY 2019.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

- 64 -

PRIORITY #1 – Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS)

OMB Guidance with 5% Investment Additional Need Agency Request Level

$2,400,000 $0 $2,400,000

The Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract and related project is the RRB’s highest 

priority for FY 2019 and directly aligns to the RRB Agency Reform Plan’s third proposal to 

“Improve Organizational Efficiency and Effectiveness.” 1 The EIS contract will serve as a 

replacement for the expiring Networx, WITS 3 and the Local Telecommunications Services

contracts. The EIS contract provides a flexible platform to support agency migrations to modern 

telecommunications and IT service offerings including: Unified Voice communications (UC), 

data communications, Hosted services, wireless, cloud service, and managed service. 

GSA is transitioning to a replacement contract vehicle for Networx and all of their regional 

contracts and Local Service Agreements. The transition must be completed no later than March 

2020. As these contracts expire, GSA, will assist agencies with transitioning their existing 

services to the replacement EIS contracts to ensure continuity of services.

Currently a hosted Unified Communications (UC) Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 

telecommunications platform provides voice telecommunication services within RRB HQ and 

allows for external telephone communications. The UC system provides telephony features to 

end-users and has the ability to be administered locally or remotely. The UC system provides 

fully redundant and services and is geographically diverse. 

The UC encompasses the following:

1. Enterprise VoIP;

2. 800/Toll-Free Services;

3. Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Services (MTIPS);

4. Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

5. Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

6. Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

Benefits Risks of delay

• Streamlined contract administration, including catalog-based offerings,

• Focus on solutions over technologies (one-stop shopping),

• Future-proof contracts (price management mechanism, 15 year POP),

• Simplified pricing, including simplified CLIN structure,

• Flexibility, enhanced management 

• A solution-oriented vehicle that will allow us to define, acquire, and manage the 

networks serving our mission needs over its 15 year contract life.

• Reduced entry requirements for services and geographic coverage,

• Ability to leverage provider commercial systems, with fewer government-unique 

requirements.

• Networx contract 

expires in 2020.

• Lose EIS 

efficiencies.

• Higher commercial 

rates.

 1 OMB Guidance M-17-22 “Comprehensive Plan for Reforming the Federal Government and Reducing the Federal Workforce”

required all agencies to submit an Agency Reform Plan. The Plan identifies how the agency proposes to improve the efficiency, 

effectiveness and accountability.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

- 65 -

PRIORITY #2 – Legacy Systems Modernization Services (LSMS)

OMB Guidance with 5% Investment Additional Need Agency Request Level

$3,161,000 $4,119,000 $7,280,000

The LSMS project is the RRB’s second priority for FY 2019 (remains the first priority in FY 

2018 and out years with the exception of FY 2019) and directly aligns to the RRB Agency 

Reform Plan’s first proposal to “Improve Organizational Efficiency and Effectiveness.” The 

project seeks to modernize the RRB’s IT systems, in order to mitigate cyber security risks, 

improve fraud prevention and detection abilities, and to support a more effective, efficient and 

leaner workforce. Currently, the RRB’s adjudication and benefit payment systems have aged 

substantially and have grown too complex and costly to maintain. RRB’s current mainframe 

environment includes 200 major distinct applications systems consisting of more than 4,200 

custom programs and approximately 12 million lines of code in COBOL. 

The LSMS is a reengineering effort using a support service contractor for the gradual, phased 

transition to a distributed architecture with open standards. Our strategy encompasses multiple 

iterations over various phases in a new environment to minimize impact to the current legacy 

environment. We are in the first phase that uses automated code conversion tools as well as 

automated test and data validation tools, to transform the legacy mainframe-based COBOL 

programming code. At the end of each iteration, the updated code in the current legacy systems 

is brought over for incremental conversion. Systems will run in parallel during the final iteration 

to gain confidence of the migrated systems in the new environment. After completion of the 

code transformation phase, the project will move toward the consolidation of benefit processing 

services and enabling these services to be Cloud ready. 

The LSMS implementation phases are:

• Phase 0 Assessment of As-IS environment (Completed – 12/2014)

• Phase 1 Incremental Code Transformation over multiple iterations (In Process) 

• Phase 2 Consolidation of sub-systems

• Phase 3 Cloud ready sub-systems

Benefits Risks of delay

• Increased efficiency of application 

portfolios

• Growth in enterprise system agility

• Adoption of modern programming 

languages

• Legacy computing limitations and increased maintenance 

costs for aged applications 

• Less defined technology architecture and system process 

documentation

• Increased vulnerability to Cybersecurity threats and 

knowledge loss due to attrition
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

- 66 -

PRIORITY #3 – Citizen Services Improvements

OMB Guidance with 5% Investment Additional Need Agency Request Level

$0 $175,000 $175,000

RRB’s Citizen Services Improvement initiative is the RRB’s third highest priority and directly 

aligns to the RRB Agency Reform Plan’s second proposal to “Improve Organizational Efficiency 

and Effectiveness.” This initiative seeks to implement self-service digital solutions to our 

customers and end users. 

We will enable secure web-based self-service access to personal account statements and 

individualized information about the status of claims and benefits, as well as allowing access to 

industry standard features such as the online benefit estimates. These enhancements will assist 

railroad workers and their families in the completion and tracking of online applications, claims, 

payments and other documentation. The enhanced services will also enable the railroad 

employee to perform “what-if” type analysis, such as adjusting the retirement date to see how the 

benefit amount changes.

Benefits Risks of delay

• Improves Security

• Strong initial and ongoing identity validation

• Enhanced customer satisfaction

• Modern IT services to customers through 

automated systems 

• Adoption of paperless communications

• Continued use of paper based processes

• Less timely password reset services to end 

users

• Online access limited to agency’s current 

service offerings
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

- 67 -

PRIORITY #4 – Electronic Records Utilization and Paperless Processing

OMB Guidance with 5% Investment Additional Need Agency Request Level

$0 $2,200,000 $2,200,000

RRB’s Electronic Records Utilization and Paperless Processing initiative is the RRB’s fourth

priority and directly aligns to the RRB Agency Reform Plan’s fourth proposal to “Improve 

Organizational Efficiency and Effectiveness.” The RRB proposes to establish an electronic 

imaging and records system, which will eliminate a significant portion of its paper-based 

processing. RRB will also migrate to paperless disability program processing as a future 

automation goal.

Automating manual processes is critical for increasing employee efficiency and effectiveness in 

a benefits-paying environment. In addition, migration to an electronic method of processing 

disability claims would provide a means for real-time detection and prevention of disability fraud 

by facilitating greater data modeling to reduce fraud, waste and abuse while also enabling the use 

of data mining techniques that will assist auditors and investigators.

Enhancements to the current system will enable the electronic export of e-mails, direct receipt of 

third party documents and faxes, as well as streamlining the process of scanning a claim folder to 

imaging.

Benefits Risks of delay

• Encourages adoption of paperless 

communications

• Automate manual process

• Real-time detection and prevention of 

disability fraud

• Continued use of paper based processes

• Continued use of outdated technology
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

- 68 -

PRIORITY #5 - Secure Consolidation for Mainframe Services

OMB Guidance with 5% Investment Additional Need Agency Request Level

$0 $3,200,000 $3,200,000

RRB’s Secure Consolidation for Mainframe Services project is directly aligned with the RRB’s 

sixth proposal in the RRB Agency Reform Plan to “Improve Organizational Efficiency and 

Effectiveness.” This project seeks to leverage the USDA National Information Technology 

Center (NITC) Platform as a Service (PaaS) for mainframe operations rather than investing in a 

replacement for our IBM mainframe, which will reach its end of life in fiscal year 2018.

The RRB’s mainframe computer system has a vital role as the hub of the agency’s enterprise 

infrastructure, running mission-critical legacy applications and databases. The agency relies on 

the mainframe to perform large-scale transaction processing, support a large number of users and 

application programs concurrently accessing numerous resources, manage large volumes of 

information in databases, and handle large-bandwidth communication.

The RRB’s dependency on the mainframe for mission-critical services will continue until 

completion of the Legacy Systems Modernization Services (LSMS) project; therefore, migrating 

the agency’s mainframe to NITC for the remainder of the legacy re-engineering project will 

maintain agency mission-critical services while the mainframe systems are modernized from 

COBOL to C# and then decommissioned. 

Benefits Risks of delay

• Utilization of federal PaaS rather than investing 

in replacement of technology that will only 

remain necessary during a short-term period 

while modernizing legacy systems.

• Mainframe shared services maintains capability 

to process a variety of job types simultaneously 

at very high utilizations.

• All required Federal Certifications are met and 

monitored to be FEDRAMP Certified and 

FISMA High.

• Federal employees with proper clearances 

would manage RRB PII data.

• Continued use of outdated technology with 

risk of delays in paying retirement/survivor 

and unemployment/sickness benefits.

• Productivity decreases, downtime and/or 

total equipment failure.

• Workload processing inefficiencies.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

- 69 -

PRIORITY #6 - Cybersecurity and Privacy

OMB Guidance with 5% Investment Additional Need Agency Request Level

$0 $1,072,000 $1,072,000

The agency’s cybersecurity and privacy strategy is to make attacks ineffective through 

prevention and detection through continuous monitoring. Funding will enhance the RRB’s 

information security and privacy program activities, which directly support the President’s 

Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical 

Infrastructure. Because of the sensitivities related to security and privacy program activities, 

specifics for this element are intentionally omitted and available internally only.

In general, RRB mitigates risk through the complementary use of technology, such as firewalls, 

integrity checkers, virus scanners, intrusion detection systems, anti-virus software and other 

special security devices, and well-trained personnel. To supplement the agency’s continuous 

monitoring strategy, we recently formed a partnership with the Department of Homeland 

Security (DHS) and enrolled in the Continuous Diagnostic Mitigation (CDM) program. The 

CDM program increases the agency’s visibility of potential threats continuously.

Benefits Risks of delay

• Improves organizational cybersecurity 

posture

• Improves adherence to organizational 

policies 

• Loss of confidentiality, integrity, and 

availability of the RRB information system

• Failure to improve cybersecurity posture of 

the RRB
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

- 70 -

PRIORITY #7 – Financial Management Integrated System (FMIS) Upgrade

OMB Guidance with 5% Investment Additional Need Agency Request Level

$0 $1,250,000 $1,250,000

In accordance with OMB’s Financial Management Line of Business (FMLOB) imitative and 

related guidance RRB commenced using a core financial management system in a cloud 

environment hosted by a shared service provider (CGI Federal Inc.) at the beginning of fiscal 

year 2014. The system, called the Financial Management Integrated System (FMIS), currently 

supports the processing and reporting functions of budget preparation and execution, acquisition 

and purchasing, accounts payable and disbursement, general ledger, external reporting, fixed 

assets and accounts receivable. The system is supported by CGI Federal’s proprietary financial 

system software – Momentum. The RRB is currently using the version of Momentum that was 

available at the time of migration - 7.0. Since that time, CGI has released five updated versions 

of Momentum containing significant added functional enhancements and regulatory updates that 

reflect current Federal guidance and mandates. The funding will support a migration by RRB to 

the most current version of the Momentum software, 7.5, and increase the agency’s ability to 

meet its business and reporting requirements efficiently and timely. 

Benefits Risks of delay

• Maintain compliance with RRB-applicable 

laws, regulations, standards and requirements.

• Leverage maintenance costs that are being 

paid to the contractor for software upgrades.

• Inherit most recent best practice upgrades to 

the software contributed by the contractor’s 

client base – the Momentum User Group 

(MUG).

• RRB business needs are likely to become 

misaligned with the functionality of the 

software.

• Workarounds will proliferate outside the 

system.

• User satisfaction with the system may 

decrease and undermine business benefits.

• The expense of upgrading will increase as 

there are more intervening versions.

• Cumulative cost of piecemeal enhancements 

will increase over time, and will not provide 

the same benefit as full software.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

- 71 -

PRIORITY #8 - Records Management System

OMB Guidance with 5% Investment Additional Need Agency Request Level

$0 $1,315,000 $1,315,000

OMB memorandum M-12-18, Managing Government Records Directive, mandated that by 

Fiscal Year 2019, all Executive Branch agencies implement efforts to reform records 

management policies and practices and to develop a 21st-century framework for the management 

of Government records. 

The RRB acquired contractor services in fiscal year 2015 to perform an assessment of its records 

management program to meet the requirements of OMB M-12-18. Deliverables included an 

evaluation of current records management processes with a focus on identification of areas 

where improvement is necessary, and the development of a tactical action plan to meet the 

requirements of OMB M-12-18 going forward in future fiscal years. The contract assessment 

included a recommendation that the RRB implement an RMS based on the action plan. 

This funding will support RRB’s plan to develop and implement a new cloud based Records 

Management System (RMS). When complete, the RMS will identify, maintain, classify and 

dispose of RRB electronic records including disability related records and e-mail, according to 

specified records disposition policies. Completion of this project will support our electronic 

records utilization and paperless processing efforts, which is our fourth proposal to “Improve 

Organizational Efficiency and Effectiveness” as discussed in the RRB’s Agency Reform Plan in 

accordance with OMB Guidance M-17-22. 

Benefits Risks of delay

• Allows for consistent management of 

electronic records and policies

• Meets requirements of the Managing 

Government Records Directive and other 

related records management regulatory and 

compliance standards

• Protects vital records

• Currently not in compliance with NARA 

records management regulation

• Currently not in compliance with E-discovery 

requests related to the Federal Rules of Civil 

Procedure
- 72 -

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RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Proposed Legislative Program for Fiscal Year 2019

- 73 -

1. Amend the Railroad Retirement Act to allow the Railroad Retirement Board to 

utilize various hiring authorities available to other Federal agencies.

Section 7(b)(9) of the Railroad Retirement Act contains language requiring that all 

employees of the Railroad Retirement Board, except for one assistant for each Board 

Member, must be hired under the competitive civil service.

Elimination of this requirement would enable the Railroad Retirement Board to use 

various hiring authorities offered by the Office of Personnel Management.

2. Amend the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance 

Act to include a felony charge for individuals committing fraud against the Agency. 

Section 13 of the Railroad Retirement Act and Section 9 of the Railroad Unemployment 

Insurance Act contain misdemeanor charges for individuals committing fraud against the 

Railroad Retirement Board.

The Railroad Retirement Board proposes to amend the Railroad Retirement and Railroad 

Unemployment Insurance Acts to include a felony charge for individuals committing 

fraud against the Agency.

Under this proposal, both the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment 

Insurance Act would be amended to include a felony charge similar to violations under 

42 U.S.C. § 408, 18 U.S.C. § 1001, or 18 U.S.C. § 287.

3. Amend the Social Security Act to provide access for the Railroad Retirement Board 

to the National Directory of New Hires and to waive the customary fees for the 

RRB.

The Social Security Act provides for a National Directory of New Hires (NDNH). The 

Directory is used to enhance child support payments and in enforcement of the tax laws 

of the United States. In addition, the Commissioner of Social Security is granted access 

to the Directory.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Budget Submission and FY 2018 Congressional Justification

included a package of proposals to allow additional programs and agencies authority to 

access the National Directory of New Hire Data, a federal database of employment and 

unemployment insurance information administered by the Office of Child Support 

Enforcement within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Access to 

this data is tightly controlled by statute, and HHS implements strong privacy, 

confidentiality, and security protections to protect the data from unauthorized use or 

disclosure. Currently several programs are successfully using this data for program 

integrity, implementation, and research purposes, and the use of that data has led to 

important insights and program integrity gains. 
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Proposed Legislative Program for Fiscal Year 2019

- 74 -

The FY 2017 Budget submission and FY 2018 Congressional Justification proposed to 

build on this strong history of data stewardship and protection to allow additional 

programs and agencies to access this valuable data to learn what works and improve 

program implementation, while continuing to protect the privacy, security and 

confidentiality of that data. Included in this package was the Railroad Retirement Board 

(RRB).

The Railroad Retirement Board pays benefits under both the Railroad Retirement and 

Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts that are based in part on a claimant’s earnings. 

The RRB currently conducts wage matches with all 50 States to detect improper 

payments. The FY 2017 Budget submission, FY 2018 Congressional Justification 

proposed and now the FY 2019 Budget submission proposes access to NDNH for RRB in 

order to conduct wage matches, establish eligibility for disability benefits in a more 

efficient manner, and detect potential improper payment of benefits under the Railroad 

Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts.
- 75 -

Budget Authority Outlays

60-0111-0-1-601

 Dual Benefits Payments Account.................................................................. 18,000 18,000

60-0113-0-1-601

 Federal Payments to the Railroad Retirement Accounts............................... 1,704,730 1,704,730

60-8010-0-7-601

 Social Security Equivalent Benefit Account................................................. 7,764,000 7,748,000

60-8011-0-7-601

 Railroad Retirement Account...................................................................... 5,550,000 5,538,000

60-8118-0-7-601

 National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust............................................ 1,983,500 1,983,500

60-8237-0-7-601

 Limitation on Administration

 OMB Guidance level............................................................. 111,225 111,225

 OMB Guidance plus 5% investment.............................................. 116,786 116,786

 Agency Request level.............................................................. 142,506 142,506

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Relationship of Programs to Account Structure

(in thousands of dollars)

2019 Estimates
- 76 -

Summary Budget Authority Outlays

Federal funds (see previous page) 1/................................................................ 1,722,730 1,722,730

 

Trust funds (see previous page) 2/.................................................................... 15,297,500 15,269,500

Deductions for offsetting receipts:

Intrafund transactions (OASDI transfer) 3/....................................................... (4,333,800) (4,333,800)

Intrafund transactions (NRRIT transfers) 3/......................................... (1,983,500) (1,983,500)

 Proprietary receipts from the public 4/......................................... (345,800) (345,800)

Interfund transactions 5/............................................................... (1,704,730) (1,704,730)

 TOTAL 8,652,400 8,624,400

1/

2/ Represents budget authority and outlays for the Social Security Equivalent Benefit Account, the Railroad Retirement Account, and the

National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (NRRIT). Excludes the Limitation on Administration.

3/ Represents the financial interchange transfer amount of $4,333,800,000 expected from the Social Security Administration's Old Age 

and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Funds and a transfer of $1,983,500,000 from the NRRIT to the 

Railroad Retirement Account.

4/ Estimate of interest and dividends on non-Federal securities earned by the NRRIT.

5/ Represents budget authority and outlays for the Federal Payments to the Railroad Retirement Accounts.

A-11 Reference - Section 51.4 (July 2017)

(in thousands of dollars)

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Relationship of Programs to Account Structure

2019 Estimates

Represents budget authority and outlays for the Dual Benefits Payments Account and the Federal Payments to the Railroad 
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Agency Reform Plan

- 77 -

The following RRB Agency Reform Plan (“Plan”) has been developed in accordance with 

guidance contained in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-17-22, 

“Comprehensive Plan for Reforming Federal Government and Reducing the Federal Civilian 

Workforce”. 

The Plan consists of three elements.

I. A high-level draft of the areas RRB is developing for reforms;

II. Progress on near-term workforce reduction actions; and

III. A plan to maximize employee performance (Appendix 1)

OVERVIEW

RRB Function, Organization, Funding Source and Real Property

Headquartered in Chicago, the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is an independent agency in 

the executive branch of the Federal Government. The RRB’s primary function is to administer 

comprehensive retirement-survivor and unemployment-sickness benefit programs through the 

determination and payment of benefits for the nation’s railroad workers and their families, under 

the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts. As part of the retirement 

program, the RRB also has administrative responsibilities under the Social Security Act for 

certain benefit payments and railroad workers’ Medicare coverage.

The RRB estimates that it will pay the following in retirement and survivor benefits through 

fiscal year 2018: $12.3 billion to 554,000 persons in fiscal year 2016, $12.5 billion to 551,000 

persons in fiscal year 2017, and $12.8 billion to 548,000 persons in fiscal year 2018.

A three-member Board appointed by the President of the United States, with the advice and 

consent of the Senate, leads the RRB. The President appoints one member upon the 

recommendation of railroad employers, another upon the recommendation of railroad labor 

organizations and the third, who is the Chairman, to represent the public interest. The Board 

Chairman position is currently vacant. At the beginning of FY-2017, the RRB employed 870 

staff in its Headquarters office in Chicago, IL and in its 53 field offices located throughout the 

United States to assist railroad personnel and their families in filing claims for benefits. 

Headquarters staff are functionally aligned to:

• adjudicate claims,

• maintain earnings records,

• calculate benefits, and process payments through automated systems,

• predict the future income and outlays of the railroad retirement system,

• analyze and provide data, and

• provide legal counsel, interpret legislation and represent the RRB in litigation utilizing 

legal staff.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Agency Reform Plan

- 78 -

RRB’s operations (i.e. to fund salaries, benefits, rental payments, support service contract costs, 

supplies, etc.) are funded from the Limitation of Administration (LOA) account. The 

Appropriations language, provides the RRB authority to transfer a specific amount from the 

Trust funds to our LOA in accordance with the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad 

Unemployment Insurance Act. This equates to monies pulled from three trust funds to support 

operations (i.e., Social Security Equivalent Benefit Account (SSEB), Railroad Retirement 

Account, and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. The funding sources for 

these three funds are specific to the railroad industry – not general revenues. For FY-2017 

Congress has authorized $113,500,000 (P.L. 115-31).

The 1981 amendment to the Railroad Retirement Act provided for the Dual Benefits Payments 

Account to pay benefits to retirees who were qualified for benefits under both social security and 

railroad retirement before 1975. For FY-2017 RRB received $25,000,000 in general revenue for 

the Dual Benefits Payment Account to pay benefits (P.L. 115-31). These monies are used for 

benefit payment purposes only and do not support RRB operations. 

Finally, RRB’s Real Property responsibilities include delegated authority for the operations and 

maintenance of its Headquarters building located at 844 N. Rush St in Chicago, IL including all 

mechanical systems and building infrastructure. Significant investments in energy efficiency and 

green initiatives have resulted in reduced energy costs. However, miscellaneous contracted 

service responsibilities remain a challenge as funding has not kept pace with incremental 

increases in the costs of contracts.

I. AREAS FOR REFORM: PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE ORGANIZATIONAL 

EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS

The RRB has long been an innovator in using resources efficiently and effectively while 

continuously providing superior service to its customers. Going forward, that becomes an evergreater challenge given that Federal employment at the RRB has been steadily decreasing as 

shown in the chart below. In addition to actual decreases in employment over the last 10+ years, 

the RRB has nearly one-quarter of its workforce that are currently retirement eligible with that 

percentage increasing to 36% by FY-2020. Historically, RRB has averaged 49 retirements per 

year over the past 10 years and these attrition based workforce changes will impact every facet of 

the RRB’s operations, including senior management.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Agency Reform Plan

- 79 -

1. PROPOSAL: Legacy Systems Modernization [Improve organizational efficiency 

and effectiveness]

What: The RRB will continue the effort to re-engineer critical legacy mainframe applications to 

sustain agency operations, improve customer services and enable a “future ready” RRB 

workforce. Using an incremental and iterative approach, we will transform high risk enterprise 

systems with a digital first perspective. Following a phased implementation, RRB staff will be 

equipped with modern tools and technologies to do their jobs in the most efficient and effective 

manner leading to sustained customer satisfaction in the railroad community we serve.

Why: Many of the RRB’s existing systems are dated, complex, and require large investments in 

maintenance from both a technical and business perspective. The mainframe environment 

includes 200 distinct application systems consisting of more than 4,200 custom programs using 

12 million lines of legacy COBOL programming code that have been constantly patched, and not 

re-engineered to meet new legislative mandates. In addition to work inefficiencies, securing and 

defending RRB’s network and critical information infrastructure from cyber-attacks has become 

increasingly difficult. It is costly and extremely resource intensive to protect sensitive customer 

data in the legacy systems.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Agency Reform Plan

- 80 -

How: The reengineering effort is being accomplished through the use of a bid contract for the 

gradual, phased transition to a distributed architecture with open standards. Our strategy 

encompasses multiple iterations over various phases in a new environment to minimize impact to 

the current legacy environment. The first phase makes use of automated code conversion tools as 

well as automated test and data validation tools, to transform the 12 million lines of legacy 

mainframe-based COBOL programming code. At the end of each iteration, the updated code in 

the current legacy systems is brought over for incremental conversion. Systems will run in 

parallel during the final iteration to gain confidence of the migrated systems in the new 

environment. After the completion of the first phase of code transformation, the remaining 

phases focus on the consolidation of benefit processing services and enabling these services to be 

Cloud ready.

Costs & Savings: While upfront costs of the multi-year, iterative legacy transformation are 

significant with an estimate of approximately $18.3 million through FY-2020, by actively 

pursuing the continued automation and modernization of its various processing systems, RRB 

will be able to more efficiently and effectively support its mission and improve operations. This 

will allow the agency to reduce staffing in certain areas, resulting in an average annual salary 

cost savings of approximately $113,000 for each FTE. 

Statutory, Regulatory, and Administrative Analysis: The proposed changes require no 

underlying statutory, regulatory, or other legal authorities, poses no increased litigation risk, and 

can be done administratively.

Performance Goals: Contract service delivery is adhering to a specified delivery checklist and 

associated timeframe. As such, progress towards established goals is measured and undergoes 

continuous oversight. We will continuously monitor, measure, and perform value driven services 

to ensure the predictable outcome of a successful migration.

Strategic Goal: Serve as Responsible Stewards for Our Customers’ Trust Funds and Agency 

Resources. - Ensure the Accuracy and Integrity of Operations

2. PROPOSAL: Citizen Services Improvements [Improve organizational efficiency 

and effectiveness]

What: The RRB will continue to implement self-service digital solutions to our customers and 

end users. We will enable secure self-service access to personal account statements and 

individualized information about the status of claims and benefits, as well as allowing access to 

industry standard features such as the online benefit estimates. These enhancements will assist 

railroad workers and their families in the completion and tracking of online applications as well 

as claims, payments, and other documentation.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Agency Reform Plan

- 81 -

Why: Secure web-based services can prevent needless delays and ensure that railroad 

employees who are planning to retire are aware of what steps to take and what documents are 

required when applying for an annuity. This will reduce unnecessary delays to payments. In 

addition, beneficiaries are increasingly “tech-savvy” and demand the flexibility of self-service 

options for checking eligibility, application processing, and claims status inquiries.

How: Similar to online banking services, these self service solutions will be built using secure 

communications and with strong authentication and identity management. The architecture is 

flexible to support a variety of end user computing devices including smart phones. We will 

leverage modern security standards namely web and database application firewalls to protect the 

customer data in transit and which will be stored in the current legacy mainframe systems. As the 

legacy systems migration completes, these citizen based services will be enhanced to leverage 

cloud based applications. We will also deploy paperless statements online to cut down on 

postage and mailings, and to provide the right information to the customer in a secure 

communication. These paperless statements are interactive and enable the railroad employee to 

perform “what-if” type analysis, such as adjusting the retirement date to see how the benefit 

amount change.

Costs & Savings: Initial costs are estimated at approximately $1.425 million in FY-2018 

through FY-2020. However, the improvements will reduce the need for current staffing levels in 

the field while improving overall customer service. 

Statutory, Regulatory, and Administrative Analysis: The proposed changes require no 

underlying statutory, regulatory, or other legal authorities, poses an acceptable litigation risk, and 

can be done administratively.

Performance Goals: RRB will monitor customer satisfaction via the American Customer 

Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a national indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of goods 

and services available to U.S. residents. A Customer Satisfaction Study from 2015 will form the 

baseline for customer satisfaction improvements.

Strategic Goal 1: The RRB will Provide Excellent Customer Service. - Provide a Range of 

Choices in Service Delivery Methods

Strategic Goal 2: Serve as Responsible Stewards for Our Customers’ Trust Funds and Agency 

Resources. - Ensure the Accuracy and Integrity of Operations
RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

Agency Reform Plan

- 82 -

3. PROPOSAL: Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions [Improve organizational 

efficiency and effectiveness]

What: The General Services Administration (GSA), Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), Office 

of Telecommunications Services (OTS) created the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) 

program to provide an acquisition vehicle for agency customers across the Federal Government 

and other eligible users, to acquire simple to complex telecommunications and networking 

infrastructure services from one or more contractors. GSA currently manages 

telecommunications acquisition programs that provide close to $2 billion of services annually to 

more than 130 government agencies. GSA has established a single new program, Enterprise 

Infrastructure Solutions (EIS), to replace all of the existing contract vehicles. EIS is planned to 

serve as a flexible, solution-oriented vehicle that will allow agencies to define, acquire and 

manage agency enterprise technology, serving their individual mission needs over its 15 year 

contract life. The EIS contract is the main component of GSA’s telecommunications portfolio. It 

is replacing GSA’s current Networx Universal and Enterprise contracts as well as GSA Regional 

Local Service Agreements for government telecommunications and infrastructure solutions. The 

EIS contract, with a 15-year period of performance (one 5 year base and two 5 year options), is 

valued at $50 billion and will provide a $75 million minimum revenue guarantee per awardee.

EIS is the successor vehicle required for GSA to continue fulfilling its Congressional mandate to 

provide telecommunications services for the Federal Government. Section 5124(b) of the 

Clinger-Cohen Act (CCA) states, “notwithstanding any other provision of this or any other law, 

the Administrator of General Services shall continue to manage the FTS 2000 program, and to 

coordinate the follow-on to that program, on behalf of and with the advice of the heads of 

executive Agencies.” 

Why: The current generation of national and regional programs—including GSA’s Networx 

contract will expire in spring 2020. The RRB must migrate all services from the Networx 

contract and Local Service Agreements to a new contract vehicle. 

How: GSA and their EIS program support contractors developed proprietary software to assist 

agencies with the transition. The software is designed to aid the RRB in creating and reviewing 

Statements of Work as well as assist in reviewing solicitation response. The RRB will be issuing 

four major solicitations. The first solicitation will be for Web Content delivery services. These 

services will provide a publicly accessible web interface to access www.RRB.gov. The second 

solicitation will address the agencies Enterprise-wide Voice Communications. Services included 

in the Voice solicitation include Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), Interactive Voice Response 

(IVR), call conferencing, station-to-station calling (on-network and off-network), National Toll 

Free Services and other collaboration tools. The third solicitation is the RRB’s Wide Area 

Network (WAN) Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) data communications. This will 

include the Field Offices and other remote location data communications. The fourth solicitation 

will address to the RRB’s non-MPLS WAN. This will include the agencies public internet 

connectivity, other inter-agencies and business partner data network connectivity. 
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Much of the transition will migrate existing technology to similar or enhanced technology where 

applicable. The RRB will pursue technological enhancements and efficiencies factoring in 

return on investment, capital expense, and human capital effort.

Costs & Savings: Migrating our existing infrastructure and hosted technology to the EIS 

contract will require approximately $2.4 million through FY-2020 for service related equipment, 

services and parallel operations. (The majority of funding will be needed in FY-2019 as the 

Agency moves forward with implementation of the EIS contract.) The RRB will pursue savings 

by using GSA’s increased supplier competition and price transparency via the GSA Pricer and 

Prices Paid in the GSA Acquisition Gateway. If the RRB did not utilize the EIS contract and 

went at it alone, we would face tremendous costs and additional procurement activities trying to 

secure the numerous required business operating communication and technology services via 

contracting. 

GSA pursued an innovative geographic coverage approach which provides agencies with needed 

coverage. At the same time, they increased the number of suppliers and established a robust 

competitive federal marketplace by aggregating the overall federal spend for advanced networkenabled products/services and infrastructure.

Statutory, Regulatory, and Administrative Analysis: The proposed changes require no 

underlying statutory, regulatory, or other legal authorities, poses no increased litigation risk, and 

can be done administratively.

Performance Goals: Utilizing the EIS contract will increase the RRB’s ability to incorporate 

emerging technologies securely as they become available to the commercial market place while 

using the EIS contract’s flexibility to adjust to rapidly changing requirements. The RRB will 

utilize GSA’s provided services to ensure the contractors are adhering to their commitment 

timelines and service level agreements.

Strategic Goal: The RRB Will Provide Excellent Customer Service - Provide a Range of 

Choices in Service Delivery Methods.

4. PROPOSAL: Electronic Records Utilization and Paperless Processing [Improve 

organizational efficiency and effectiveness]

What: The RRB proposes to establish an electronic imaging and records system which will 

eliminate a significant portion of its paper-based processing. RRB will also migrate to paperless 

disability program processing as a future automation goal.

Why: Automating manual processes is critical for increasing employee efficiency and 

effectiveness in a benefits-paying environment. In addition, migration to an electronic method of 

processing disability claims would provide a means for real-time detection and prevention of 

disability fraud by facilitating greater data modeling to reduce fraud, waste and abuse while also 

enabling the use of data mining techniques that will assist auditors and investigators.
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How: Through the identification and prioritization of potential enhancements to the current 

system including electronic export of e-mails, third party documents and faxes, as well as 

streamlining the process of scanning a folder to imaging, or importing electronic documents 

received from outside sources to RRB’s system.

Costs & Savings: In FY-2017, responses to a Request for Information were received from eight 

potential vendors. Initial estimates of cost range from $750,000 and $2.2 million. The lowest 

offer is from the incumbent Imaging contractor, which would not have to migrate extant 

documents. In terms of cost savings, the efficiencies and process improvements that would 

result from an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capable system that supports features 

commonly found in state-of-the-art imaging systems will allow redirection of staffing in Field 

Service (FS) to higher level work and the redirection of any staff savings within the Office of 

Programs (OP) to strengthen ongoing program integrity efforts.

Statutory, Regulatory, and Administrative Analysis: The proposed changes require no 

underlying statutory, regulatory, or other legal authorities, poses an acceptable litigation risk, and 

can be done administratively.

Performance Goals: Due to the high accuracy rate of (99% - 100%) of current imaging 

operations, Programs Evaluation Management Staff will conduct quarterly paper-to-image 

reviews. The review will rotate between 100 RUIA and 100 RRA documents scanned and 

indexed at headquarters and annual reviews of RRA and RUIA documents scanned at each of the 

53 FS offices. In FY-2016, the accuracy rate of the manual imaging process carried out at 

headquarters and all FS offices was 99.47%. This is an on-going indicator that our mission is 

being accomplished. In addition, documents which go directly into the imaging system are 

monitored daily by the Imaging Analysts in Policy & Systems (P&S). There is no current 

backlog of imaging work but that too will continue to be monitored.

Strategic Goal: The RRB will Provide Excellent Customer Service-Provide a Range of Choices 

in Service Delivery Methods

5. PROPOSAL: Toll Free Service Improvements [Improve organizational efficiency 

and effectiveness]

What: Re-route toll-free calls to increase efficiency

Why: To provide better service to the public and more efficiently serve the public

How: The RRB has long provided service to beneficiaries and employees through use of a tollfree number. The RRB is in the process of making enhancements to the toll-free system that will 

route calls to field personnel in any office, rather than within the geographical region of the call. 

This enhancement will more effectively use RRB field personnel and reduce wait times for our 

customers.
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Costs & Savings: There are no anticipated costs to this plan. The savings will be seen by 

reductions in salary and benefit costs due to staff attritions, along with the ability to use existing 

personnel in well-staffed offices to meet the customer service driven mission of the Agency. 

Statutory, Regulatory, and Administrative Analysis: The proposed changes require no 

underlying statutory, regulatory, or other legal authorities, pose no increased litigation risk, and 

can be done administratively.

Strategic Goal: The RRB will Provide Excellent Customer Service-Provide a Range of Choices 

in Service Delivery Methods

6. Proposal: Secure Consolidation for Mainframe Services [Improve organizational 

efficiency and effectiveness

What: Migration of the RRB’s current mainframe computer operations to the National 

Information Technology Center (NITC).

Why: RRB’s current mainframe is reaching end-of-life, which will force the RRB to spend 

additional funds to replace the system internally by FY-2019. When the mainframe reaches endof-life, the primary vendor stops supporting this version of the mainframe and there are no more 

security patches to fix future threats. The end-of-life hardware starts to fail more often, which 

will lead to significant delays in fulfilling our mission, namely sending out benefit payments. 

Our strategy is to use a shared service provider who has a large staff of mainframe System 

Engineers who can deliver these mainframe services to RRB in a secure and efficient manner.

How: RRB leverages the U.S. Department of Agriculture – National Information Technology 

Center (NITC), in Kansas City for the RRB’s Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), and 

annually tests the mainframe services with them. The strategy is to transition all our mainframe 

services to NITC and decrease our dependence on our datacenter and our mainframe Systems 

Engineers. The plan includes expansion of our tapeless backup and recovery process, continuing 

to enforce Multi-factor authentication on all secure remote access connections, and ensuring 

reliable data exchange with our partners at Treasury, Social Security Administration (SSA), and 

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Costs & Savings: The cost of migrating mainframe operations to NITC will be approximately 

$8.6 million from FY-2018 through FY-2020. However, once completed the RRB mainframe 

support staff will be reduced dramatically and the risks of losing critical knowledge of outdated 

technology due to retirement will no longer be an issue. 

Statutory, Regulatory, and Administrative Analysis: The proposed changes require no 

underlying statutory, regulatory, or other legal authorities, poses no increased litigation risk, and 

can be done administratively.

Strategic Goal: Serve as Responsible Stewards for Our Customers’ Trust Funds and Agency 

Resources. - Ensure the Accuracy and Integrity of Operations
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Additional Recommended Future Statutory Changes:

The following recommend changes are deemed necessary but are not included as formal 

proposals since they lie outside the jurisdiction of the RRB to enact:

• Amend the Railroad Retirement Act to allow the Railroad Retirement Board to 

utilize various hiring authorities available to other Federal agencies.

Section 7(b) (9) of the Railroad Retirement Act contains language requiring that all employees of 

the Railroad Retirement Board, except for one assistant for each Board Member, must be hired 

under the competitive civil service.

Elimination of this requirement would enable the Railroad Retirement Board to use various other 

hiring authorities offered by the Office of Personnel Management.

• Amend the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance 

Act to include a felony charge for individuals committing fraud against the Agency. 

Section 13 of the Railroad Retirement Act and Section 9 of the Railroad Unemployment 

Insurance Act contain misdemeanor charges for individuals committing fraud against the 

Railroad Retirement Board.

The Railroad Retirement Board proposes to amend the Railroad Retirement and Railroad 

Unemployment Insurance Acts to include a felony charge for individuals committing fraud 

against the Agency.

Under this proposal, both the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment 

Insurance Act would be amended to include a felony charge similar to violations under 42 U.S.C. 

§ 408, 18 U.S.C. § 1001, or 18 U.S.C. § 287. This amendment would strengthen the agency’s 

enforcement tools and serve as a deterrent to individuals who might otherwise consider 

committing fraud against the agency.

• Amend the Social Security Act to provide access for the Railroad Retirement Board 

to the National Directory of New Hires and to waive the customary fees for the 

RRB.

The Social Security Act provides for a National Directory of New Hires (NDNH); a federal 

database of employment and unemployment insurance information administered by the Office of 

Child Support Enforcement within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The 

Directory is used to enhance child support payments and in enforcement of the tax laws of the 

United States. In addition, the Commissioner of Social Security is granted access to the 

Directory.
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While the 2017 Budget included a package of proposals to allow additional programs and 

agencies authority to access the National Directory of New Hire Data, access to this data is 

tightly controlled by statute, and HHS implements strong privacy, confidentiality, and security 

protections to protect the data from unauthorized use or disclosure. Currently several programs 

are successfully using this data for program integrity, implementation, and research purposes, 

and the use of that data has led to important insights and program integrity gains. The 2018 

Budget proposed to build on this strong history of data stewardship and protection to allow 

additional programs and agencies to access this valuable data to learn what works and improve 

program implementation, while continuing to protect the privacy, security and confidentiality of 

that data. The Railroad Retirement Board pays benefits under both the Railroad Retirement and 

Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts that are based in part on a claimant’s earnings. The 

RRB currently conducts wage matches with all 50 States to detect improper payments. The 2018 

Budget proposed access to NDNH for RRB to conduct wage matches, establish eligibility for 

disability benefits in a more efficient manner, and detect potential improper payment of benefits 

under the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts.

Public Feedback: Through the Whitehouse reform portal, members of the public submitted 2, 

697 comments which mentioned the Railroad Retirement Board. Most of these were general 

comments on reforming the executive branch. Only 45 of these mentioned the Railroad 

Retirement Board specifically. None contained specific information on how to improve the 

Railroad Retirement Board. 

II. AREAS FOR REFORM WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

What: Reduce the agency workforce through attrition.

Why: As various reform initiatives, particularly automation, are initiated the need for personnel 

will decrease.

How: In FY-2017, 24% of current agency workforce will be eligible to retire. This percentage 

increases to 36% by 2020. On average 49 employees retire per year. The Board should be able to 

reduce its ceiling and personnel costs through attrition

Costs & Savings: By selectively filling future vacancies, the Board should be able to reduce 

future personnel costs. With attrition, we expect to reduce vacancies by 28 FTEs, leaving the 

RRB with 832 FTEs in FY-2017.

Statutory, Regulatory, and Administrative Analysis: The proposed changes require no 

underlying statutory, regulatory, or other legal authorities, pose no increased litigation risk, and 

can be done administratively.

Human Capital Plan Goal: We will recruit, hire, develop and retain a diverse workforce with 

the strategic competencies required for mission-critical positions.
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APPENDIX 1

III. RRB PLAN TO MAXIMIZE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

The Railroad Retirement Board’s (RRB’s) plan to maximize employee performance consists of 

two separate yet interrelated plans – The Human Capital Analysis Plan and the Plan to Maximize 

Employee Performance. By improving the organization’s effectiveness and workforce 

management, RRB will better utilize the Federal workforce and manage our limited human 

capital resources. By strategically evaluating the positions within the RRB, we can then focus on 

maximizing employee performance. Maximizing employee performance focuses on an everevolving evaluation and implementation of an effective performance management system and an 

on-going evaluation of RRB’s human resources within the Agency. This includes ensuring an 

efficient and effective workforce, setting an achievable and high level of performance 

expectations for employees, ensuring accountability for managing performance, as well as 

rehabilitating poor performers and/or removing employees unable to perform at an acceptable 

level of competence. 

The RRB’s workforce consists of approximately 870 employees. We have approximately 290 

positions residing in roughly 40 different General Schedule (GS) occupational series. From a 

performance perspective, approximately 45% of RRB employees are under “production” like 

performance standards. In other words, close to half of our employees are evaluated based on 

the speed and/or accuracy in processing claims (e.g. – retirement, survivor, unemployment, 

sickness and/or disability claims) submitted by railroad industry beneficiaries. 

As a testament to ensuring RRB is retaining employees on the basis of the adequacy of their 

performance, since FY14 RRB has taken the following performance based actions:

 Adverse Actions - Five (5) removal actions and four (4) demotion actions

 21 Within-Grade-Increase (WIGI) denials

 37 Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs)

 More than 50 performance based memoranda (e.g. possible within grade increase 

denials; status report memoranda under applicable training agreements; and delay of 

career ladder promotion.)

 Two reassignment actions (for failure to successfully meet the terms of the requisite 

training agreement.)

Human Capital Analysis Plan

The following Human Capital Analysis Plan components will address the Improve 

Organizational Efficiency and Effectiveness and Workforce Management categories.
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Human Capital Analysis consists of a series of steps that would help guide organizational design 

and position structure, keep positions current, and assist in maximizing employee performance. 

This methodology develops the resources and data necessary to continuously analyze the RRB 

workforce and ensure prudent, fiscally responsible personnel and organizational decisions.

- Job Analysis - conduct job analysis according to accepted practice to identify critical 

competencies for each position and grade within the RRB. This process will create an upto-date position repository on which all other Human Capital Analysis Plan steps are 

based. Additionally, accurate job analysis is legally defensible and can be utilized in 

staffing, Human Resource Development (HRD), and performance management efforts.

- Competency Model Development – develop an RRB competency model utilizing job 

analysis information to identify agency competencies, position competencies, 

leadership/management competencies, and executive competencies. Each individual 

competency will be behaviorally defined at five proficiency levels and include example 

work behaviors. The use of previously validated or developed models will also be used to 

reduce project time.

- Skill Gap Analysis –job analysis and competency model development will identify the 

knowledge and skills need to perform a given position and at what proficiency level. A 

Skill Gap Analysis will be conducted based on this information to determine the gap 

between knowledge and skills necessary and those currently possessed at the agency 

and/or individual level.

- Training Needs and Career Development Analysis –Skill Gap Analysis results will 

identify knowledge and skill deficiencies throughout the agency. Utilizing those results, a 

Training Needs Analysis will be conducted to identify critical developmental needs and 

provide necessary training opportunities to improve. Additional work will be completed 

to better identify career paths within the RRB and necessary competencies needed for 

employees to progress.

The Human Capital Analysis plan supports requirements to “Develop a long-term workforce 

reduction plan” and a plan to “maximize employee performance” given it provides for informed 

decisions related to restructuring and reduction based on agency position data, and the baseline 

position information necessary to create a plan to maximize employee performance.

Job Analysis

Competency 

Model

Development

Skill Gap 

Analysis

Training Needs 

Analysis
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Overall, the Human Capital Analysis plan provides an analytical framework through which data 

driven decisions pertaining to workforce reshaping and employee performance can be made, a 

key tenant of OMB M-17-22. It does so by using agency data to determine appropriate FullTime Equivalent (FTE) baseline; examining total personnel cost; reviewing and revising (as 

needed) organizational design and position structure; streamlining policy; reviewing positions as 

they become vacant; and keeping positions current.

The Human Capital Analysis supports all of these factors both now and in the future. The 

Analysis ensures job data is current to assist in the identification of duplicative functions when 

reviewing and revising organization design and position structures. The analysis would also 

ensure an efficient review of positions as they become vacant.

Developing an agency Competency Model identifies the critical competencies for each RRB 

position and defines proficiency levels. This data can then be used to conduct a Skills Gap 

Analysis which will help managers and employees identify the areas of improvement and 

address them quickly. Finally, the Training Needs Analysis will recommend developmental 

activities managers can recommend to their employees in order to address deficiencies timely. 

The validated data developed by the Human Capital Analysis plan provides defensible outputs 

that can be used in situations that require performance management actions such as Performance 

Improvement Plans (PIP), realignments, demotions, reassignments and/or removals.

The plan maximizes employee performance by giving managers, management, and HR the tools 

and data needed to actively and continuously implement performance management policies and 

practices.

Managing Employee Performance Plan

In place at the RRB are three distinct performance management systems based on an employee’s 

supervisory status. Represented below are three different systems within the RRB and the 

approximate number of employees within each performance management system: 
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As identified in the bargaining/non bargaining performance system, modifications to 

performance standards must be reviewed by Human Resources (HR functions are centralized to 

Chicago, IL) prior to implementation. In reviewing performance standard changes and 

submissions, HR Employee Relations specialists utilize a performance standard checklist as well 

as OPM’s handbook for measuring employee performance as a guide when assisting 

supervisors/managers in developing and implementing meaningful and relevant performance 

standards. 

In FY15, RRB performed a 100% review of performance evaluations. The review was 

conducted to ensure compliance with RRB policy and to identify and correct deficiencies or 

errors in the evaluation. In addition, managers and supervisors are reminded to review and/or 

update performance standards whenever they are looking to post a vacancy announcement. In 

FY16, RRB conducted a random sample (with 95% confidence level and 5% allowed margin of 

error) of performance evaluations to ensure compliance with RRB policy and correct any 

deficiencies. In addition, the sample provided valuable feedback and opportunity for HR to 

follow-up with managers and supervisors to address unacceptable performance ratings. 

Regardless of the applicable performance management system in question, performance 

management at the RRB is aimed at improving individual and organizational effectiveness by 

relating pay levels, pay adjustments and awards to individual and organizational performance. 

Performance management is deemed essential at the RRB and is viewed as a continuous process 

given performance management related decisions have the potential to impact other personnel 

actions (e.g. within-grade-increases, career options, career ladder promotions, work-at-home 

eligibility, training opportunities, overtime qualification considerations, demotion, retention and 

reduction-in-force (RIF) rights.) 
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Effective performance management at the RRB provides an objective means of measuring 

actual work performance by considering: 

Every year, new supervisors/managers attend a three-day boot camp that covers a variety of 

Human Resources policies and practices as well as EEO and Ethics. Performance Management 

and those items outlined in 5 U.S.C. 4121 and 5 CFR 412 are covered with the new supervisors 

and managers. In addition to the three-day boot camp, new supervisors, managers and leads 

complete 12 online courses (each course is roughly 1 hour in length) via RRB’s Learning 

Management System (RRB University) as a pre-requisite to attending the in-person boot camp. 

Supervisors are provided 22 options for the online courses (of which they must select and 

complete 12.) The courses cover such topics as: leadership essentials, management essentials, 

first time manager concepts, strategic thinking, problem solving, and dealing with workplace 

conflict. As a complement to the items supervisors and managers learn during the boot camp, 

managers are provided, a supervisory reference guide. This guide further outlines and solidifies 

manager’s roles and responsibilities within the performance management system at the RRB and 

serves as a reference tool and guide for the day-to-day performance management system. 

In addition, a relatively new feature HR has introduced (in part based on a FY 2017 OPM 

Human Capital audit recommendation) are manager and supervisory performance based 

classroom workshops offered to managers and supervisors (regardless of tenure) that cover such 

topics as: taking a performance based action, developing performance standards, developing a 

performance improvement plan (PIP) and roles and responsibilities during the PIP, and 

evaluating employee performance. Participation and roster information for the HR hosted 

performance based courses are managed through our agency’s Learning Management System –

RRBUniversity. 
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The following addresses the timeline and implementation actions for improvement at the RRB 

with respect to supporting managers in managing employee performance: 

Action Comments Timeline

1) Review and 

Update Formal 

Agency Policy on 

applicable 

Performance 

Management Systems

All three performance management 

policies need revision. The 

manager/supervisor performance 

management system was last 

updated in 1996; SES plan 2001; 

and the bargaining/non-bargaining 

unit non-supervisory appraisal 

system was last updated in 1981 

with revisions done in 1985.

A) Supervisor/Manager Performance 

Management plan – Update internally by 

October 1, 2017 – review/remove any 

procedures which create unnecessary 

burdens and remove steps not required in 

statute. Ensure language is included in 

the policy that requires accountability in 

managing employee performance and/or 

conduct.

B) Senior Executive Service Performance 

Management Plan – Update internally by 

October 1, 2017. Review/remove any 

procedures which create unnecessary 

burdens and remove steps not required in 

statute. Ensure language is included in 

the policy that requires accountability in 

managing employee performance and/or 

conduct and goal/mission of the Agency.

C) Non-supervisory Performance 

Management Plan (bargaining and nonbargaining) – Update internally by 

October 1, 2018. Bargaining obligations 

will need to be met with the AFGE for 

bargaining unit employees.

2) Update and 

Implement Leave 

Policy for the RRB

A) Update Leave Policy to include 

information pertaining to the 

Administrative Leave Act of 2016 and in 

accordance with the 2017 National 

Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by 

September 30, 2017.
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Action Comments Timeline

3) Provide 

Transparency around 

the Performance 

Improvement plan 

(PIP) Process

RRB currently tracks all Employee 

Relation cases to include number of 

PIPs and those successfully 

completed as compared to those 

that have been unsuccessful. Since 

FY13, we have issued close to 40 

PIPs (our PIPs are 60 days in 

length). Most employees improve 

to at least the minimally successful 

level during the PIP process.

1) Update RRB Supervisory Reference 

guide on Performance Management and

disseminate to all supervisors and 

managers (last updated in May 2014) by 

July 1, 2017.

2) Initial PIP classroom workshops 

training launched for supervisors and 

managers by August 7, 2017. 

4) Ensure Managers 

and Supporting HR 

Staff are 

Appropriately 

Trained

Budget allowing, HR Specialists 

regularly participate in conferences 

and seminars pertaining to a host of 

employee relations matters 

(performance and/or conduct) 

throughout the year. Also, HR 

specialists are provided updated 

information on significant decisions 

in case law and updated OPM 

regulations and/or guidance 

regularly.

1) HR personnel - Participate in OPM 

sponsored webinars and review – Ongoing

2) June 1, 2017 – Completed Instructor 

Led Training (ILT) – Performance 

Management Supervisory Training

3) July 21, 2017 – ILT – creating 

performance standards

4) August 2017 – new supervisor boot 

camp

5) August 7, 2017 – roles and 

responsibilities during the PIP process. 

6) 2018 and beyond – ensure ILT sessions 

occur once a quarter for 

managers/supervisors.
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Action Comments Timeline

5) Ensure 

Accountability in 

Manager 

Performance Plans

Since at least 1985, managers and 

supervisors have, as a critical 

element in their performance plans, 

the responsibilities to effectively 

administer the performance 

appraisal program. 

1) By July 31, 2017 - Review critical 

elements pertaining to all manager and 

supervisory performance plans. 

2) By October 1, 2017 - Ensure 

accountability for employee performance 

is included in managerial/supervisory 

performance plans. 

6) Establish RealTime Manager 

Support Mechanisms

Given we are a smaller Agency and 

our HR functionality is centralized 

to one location (which covers close 

to 80% of our 

managerial/supervisory 

population), managers have 

immediate and direct access to a 

team of seasoned ER/LR 

specialists. Our ER/LR specialists 

are designated by division so they 

can learn and understand the unique 

business functionalities of the 

clients. 

On-going

1) Conduct supervisory forum for 

supervisors/managers to discuss 

performance matters to include 

consistency in evaluation of employee 

performance. Host 1-2 sessions per year. 

Initiate program in November 2017.

In Summary

Both the RRB Human Capital Analysis plan and the Plan to Maximize Employee Performance 

supports and/or directly addresses the key requirements and aspects of OMB Memorandum M17-22 – Comprehensive Plan for Reforming the Federal Government and Reducing the Federal 

Civilian Workforce. The systematic method of analysis in the Human Capital Plan will yield data 

and recommendations to assist in the long-term management of human capital within the 

Agency. The feedback, training and revisions to the performance management systems within 

the RRB ensures critical agency responsibilities and goals are met by employees with the 

necessary critical knowledge and skill competence.