To eliminate the requirement that the Public Printer make an additional contribution to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund with respect to each employee of the Government Printing Office to whom a voluntary separation incentive payment has been paid.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to the House's attention H.R. 3490, a bill introduced by the distinguished chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing and the House Administration Committee, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney), and me to repeal a requirement that the Government Printing Office make certain payments to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund in connection with voluntary separation incentive programs, or ``buy- outs.''

In a buy-out, an agency seeking to trim its workforce offers employees cash incentives to leave the rolls voluntarily, saving the agency and the taxpayers money. In 1998, Congress authorized buy-outs at GPO for 3 years, later extended through fiscal 2004. The new Public Printer, Bruce James, has used this authority for the first time this year. To defray the GPO program's cost, Congress provided $10 million in the fiscal 2004 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act.

Similar to buy-out provisions applicable throughout the executive branch at the time, the GPO-specific buy-out legislation requires the agency to pay 15 percent of the value of the salaries of those participating in the buy-out to the Office of Personnel Management, to be credited to the civil-service retirement fund. The 15 percent requirement necessarily raised the cost of buy-outs to agencies and discouraged their use. Last year, in the act establishing the Department of Homeland Security, Congress repealed the 15 percent requirement for the entire executive branch, leaving the Government Printing Office unaffected. A similar requirement on the General Accounting Office will expire next month.

Mr. Chairman, the Public Printer asked the Committee on House Administration for the provision that became H.R. 3490, and I believe the House should enact it. I know of no reason that, having repealed the 15 percent requirement for the executive branch, Congress should not repeal it for GPO as well. The Public Printer expects to save $21 million annually from buying-out 312 employees under the law as it now stands, a sizeable sum. By relieving GPO of the 15 percent requirement, the Public Printer could offer approximately 100 additional buy-outs, saving up to $7 million more, for a total of $28 million a year.

I want to thank the Public Printer, Bruce James, for bringing this matter to the committee's attention so promptly and thereby providing us the opportunity to realize these additional savings. It has been a pleasure to work with him and especially with his Director of Congressional Relations, Andy Sherman, to bring this proposal forward before the end of this session of the 108th Congress. While I am disappointed that we were unable to enact this bill before adjourning, I am hopeful we can do so shortly after the second session of the 108th Congress convenes.