Smithsonian Employees Head the Line of Workers Coveting Transit Subsidies

[MORTARDUDE]

Why does the federal government pay its employees money in the form of transit subsidies and daycare subsidies ?????

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The Washington Post

December 08, 2003

SECTION: METRO; Pg. B02; FEDERAL DIARY STEPHEN BARR

Smithsonian Employees Head the Line of Workers Coveting Transit Subsidies

BYLINE: Stephen Barr

Legislation to expand the number of government employees eligible for tax-free transit subsidies should prove popular with employees of the Smithsonian Institution.

According to a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office, about 4,000 federal employees in the National Capital Region do not receive transit subsidies -- and most of them work for the Smithsonian.

The CBO estimated that 75 percent of Smithsonian employees would participate in a subsidy program, if offered, because of limited parking around the Mall and the availability of nearby Metro subway stations.

The CBO also estimated that 25 percent of the 22,000 Postal Service workers in the National Capital Region would apply for the tax break. Transit officials assumed that postal employees would not use the transit subsidy as much as other government workers because of their "decentralized locations and varying office hours," the CBO said.

Overall, it said, about 40 percent of federal employees in the region use the transportation benefit.

The average annual benefit provided to federal employees in the Washington area is $ 1,080, it said.

Most federal agencies have given employees the chance to sign up for transit subsidies as a way to encourage them to use public transportation or form van pools.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order directing Washington area agencies to provide employees with transit passes, which can be worth up to $ 100 a month.

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) and Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) are seeking to expand the program to parts of the government, such as the Smithsonian, Postal Service and Congress, that were not covered under the Clinton order. Moran's version of the bill has been approved by the House Government Reform Committee.

The CBO estimated that Moran's legislation would cost the Postal Service $ 6 million in 2005. Providing the benefit to other federal employees would cost about $ 3 million annually, it said.

Sarbanes has expressed concern that not all agencies have implemented transit subsidy programs consistently.

In a letter to the General Accounting Office this month, Sarbanes asked for a study of transit subsidies that agencies provide to their workers. Sarbanes said he would particularly like to know which agencies do not offer the benefit, why they do not, how agencies educate employees that the benefit is available and what methods are used to deliver the benefit.

Moran and Sarbanes, in statements this year, said that expanding use of the mass transit benefit would help move cars off congested roads and help reduce pollution in the Washington-Baltimore area.

Beverly Braun, deputy director of the House Radio-TV Gallery, will retire Dec. 12 after 20 years of service in the House of Representatives.

Jennie Hunt, a reference librarian at the National Library of Medicine, will retire Jan. 4 after 40 years of federal service.

David M. Moss, an information systems security officer and director of the technology support services staff at the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, will retire Jan. 2 after more than 33 years of federal service. Friends and colleagues will honor him with a luncheon Thursday.

Mary S. Neal, associate commissioner for agricultural policy in the Customs and Border Protection Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, will retire Jan. 2 after 37 years of government service. She began her career in 1966, becoming the first woman to serve as a plant protection and quarantine officer at the Port of New York. A retirement celebration is planned for Thursday.

What do the pending changes in Medicare mean for federal retirees? What's on the horizon for federal retirees?

Dan Adcock of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees will take your questions and comments at noon Wednesday on Federal Diary Live at www.washingtonpost.com.

Please join us.