LETTER TO WILLIAM H. WEBSTER FROM FRANK R. WOLF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90M00005R001000090022-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2013
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: February 19, 1988
• Content Type: LETTER

AN DDeclassified and Approved For Release 2013/09/09: CIA-RDP90M00005R001000090022-3
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10TH DISTRICT, VIRGINIA
WASHINGTON OFFICE:
130 CANNON BUILDING
WASHINGTON. DC 20515
[phone]
CONSTITUENT SERVICES OFFICES:
1651 OLD MEADOW ROAD
SUITE 115
MCLEAN, VA 22102
[phone]
19 EAST MARKET STREET
Room 48
LEESBURG, VA 22075
[phone]
88-0811X
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Com:vacs of tbe tiniteb 'tate
jbourst of Repregentatibeg
aobington, IBC 20515
February 19, 1988
The Honorable William H. Webster
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
Dear Mr. Webster:
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As you may know, H.R. 3757, the Federal Employees Leave
Transfer Act, was marked up and reported out of the House Post
Office and Civil Service Committee in early February. This bill
will make leave sharing a permanent fixture in the personnel
management of federal employees. It has an excellent chance of
passing the House, and I expect the Senate to appreciate its
concept as well. This is a program in which everyone wins.
By virtue of an amendment to H.R. 3757, the Central
Intelligence Agency will be in a unique position to shape its own
leave sharing program to help employees facing emergency
situations. I urge you to seize this opportunity and make your
agency's program one to be envied in the federal sector. A
recent Federal Times editorial entitled, "The Gift of Time,"
notes that without this program, "employees who use up their sick
leave and annual leave are faced with an impossible choice. They
can choose to remain with their loved ones, or they can return to
work to accrue additional leave, maintain their benefits, and, of
course, earn a paycheck. They cannot have both."
This is an important program which will allow federal
employees to help each other and I know you will give your best
efforts in seeing that this gift is shared in the CIA. I would
appreciate hearing about how you are managing the program.
With best wishes.
FRW/jma
vogazzaniawnown
nk R. Wolf
Member of Congress
Las)
CDIslaIrA . . ?
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/09/09: CIA-RDP90M00005R001000090022-3
Federal Times
February 8, 1988
Commentary
Editorialsletters?Columns
The Gift of Time
Before long, federal employees may be making routine
deposits to and withdrawals from a new bank. But this
bank won't have guards or a vault or even cash.
The deposits and withdrawals will be for a commodity
that for some people is even more important, if not elusive,
than money. The commodity is time.
Throughout government, there are real life situations
that place unforgiving demands on employees' time. There
is the employee who learns he is a cancer victim and will
need substantial time off for tests and treatment There is
the employee whose child or spouse is injured in an acci-
dent or contracts a life-threatening disease.
Without a leave transfer program, employees who use
up their sick leave and annual leave are faced with an im-
possible choice. They can choose to remain with their
loved ones, or they can return to work to accrue additional
leave, maintain their benefits and, of course, earn a pay-
check. They cannot have both.
Then came an idea. Suppose an employee who has leave
that will go unused is allowed to give it to another employ-
ee who really needs it? Even if it takes place between peo-
ple of different grades, the exchange should eventually
level off, considering the huge pool of people involved.
Initial experiments with leave banks worked out well.
Yet months have elapsed, and only a handful of people
have benefited from this obviously popular idea.
The time for foOt-dragging has passed. Within weeks the
Office of Personnel Management will publish guidelines
for expanding the program, under congressional authori-
zation for fiscal 1988. All federal employees will be eligible
to participate.
Now it is up to individual agencies to set up leave ac-
counting procedures, screening committees for applicants
and precise rules about eligibility. They must act quickly.
Employees facing emergencies, and those anxious to help
them, shouldn't have to wait more months while officials
debate details.
We hope Congress will vote later this year to establish a
permanent, governmentwide leave bank that gives serious
consideration to allowing the exchange of both annual and
sick leave. Under this year's expanded program, only do-
nations of annual leave are allowed.
That's because annual leave is on a use-or-lose basis.
But sick leave accumulates. The average employee uses
only 8.5 of the 13 sick days allocated each year.
This all boils down to a challenge facing the federal
work force. Under early experiments, sick leave donations
were allowed and constituted much of the time donated.
Whether people will feel so free to part with vacation
time is the question.
We hope so. Those who were able to participate in the
pilot programs learned that deposits to the leave bank
paid big dividends: the knowledge that they were helping
co-workers when they needed it most
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