Katko, Cummings Lead Bipartisan Bill to Fund Overtime Pay for Secret Service

Sep 11, 2017
Press Release

 

Katko, Cummings Lead Bipartisan Bill to

Fund Overtime Pay for Secret Service

 

Washington, D.C. (Sept. 11, 2017)—Today, Rep. John Katko, the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Transportation and Protective Security Subcommittee, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, were joined by Reps. Trey Gowdy, Michael McCaul, Bennie Thompson, and Bonnie Watson-Coleman, in introducing H.R. 3731, the Secret Service Recruitment and Retention Act of 2017, in a bipartisan effort to ensure that the men and women of the U.S. Secret Service are paid for the overtime they work in 2017 and 2018.

 

“The men and women of the Secret Service deserve to be paid for the hours they work, period,” said Chairman Katko and Ranking Member Cummings.  “They put their lives on the line every day and make tremendous personal sacrifices for our country.  We cannot expect the Secret Service to recruit and retain the best of the best if they are not being compensated for the additional work that is demanded of them.”

 

The Secret Service reports more than 1,000 agents—a third of the agent workforce—have already “maxed out” their annual overtime and salary under the pay cap set forth in 5 U.S.C. § 5547, which prohibits agents from being paid for overtime after reaching the maximum annual salary for the pay rate of GS-15. 

 

This bipartisan legislation would allow the Secret Service to cover additional overtime earned this year and the next up to level II of the Executive Schedule and require the Secret Service to submit a report to Congress on recruitment and retention efforts.  

 

Last year, similar legislation funded overtime pay for 1,400 Secret Service employees in the 2016 presidential campaign year. 

 

On Wednesday, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a business meeting to consider the legislation.

 

Click here to see a copy of the bill. 

 

115th Congress