Federal law establishes many personnel authorities governing employee awards and incentives. The statutory authorities generally have been established by Congress to provide agencies with tools to help them manage their workforces and, thereby, to better accomplish individual agency missions as well as public policy goals that cut across agency boundaries. Some of these authorities are contained within Title 5 of the United States Code (hereafter "Title 5"). These authorities cover most agencies in the executive branch and some in the legislative branch. Other authorities may be unique in their coverage to a single agency, occupation type, or workforce, and may be located in agency-specific "carve outs" in Title 5 or in other titles. In the report, the term award refers to an agency payment that is used to reward an individual employee or group of employees for quality of past performance. Title 5 award authorities differ in their coverage and requirements among three general types of employees: federal employees generally; career Senior Executive Service (SES) employees; and political appointees. By contrast, the term incentive refers to a payment that is designed to provide a monetary inducement for an individual (or a group) to accept a new position or to remain employed in a current position. Title 5 incentive authorities come in three types: recruitment, relocation, and retention (also known as "the three Rs" or "3Rs"). The next two sections of this report discuss each topic, in turn. Potential Issues for Congress

Potential issues for Congress that are related to federal employee awards and incentives include questions of
how to provide agencies with effective human resources management tools in light of agency missions and resource levels; how agencies are using these and other authorities to recruit, motivate, reward, and retain high-performing workforces; how to structure oversight and regulation of agency practices within the executive branch; and how to exercise congressional oversight over a civil service system that is increasingly fragmented (i.e., decentralized in execution and customized to individual agencies and workforces).
Federal law establishes many authorities governing employee awards and incentives. The authorities generally have been established by Congress to provide agencies with tools to help them manage their workforces and, thereby, to better accomplish agency missions and public policy goals that cut across agency boundaries. Some of these authorities are contained within Title 5 of the United States Code, and cover most agencies in the executive branch and some in the legislative branch. These authorities are the subject of this report. Other statutory authorities may be unique in their coverage to a single agency, occupation type, or workforce, and are located in agency-specific "carve outs" in Title 5 or in other titles.
The term award refers to an agency payment that is used to reward an individual employee or group of employees for quality of past performance. By contrast, the term incentive refers to a payment that is designed to provide a monetary inducement for an individual (or group) to accept a new position or to remain employed in a current position.
Title 5 award authorities differ in their coverage and requirements among three general types of employees: federal employees generally; career Senior Executive Service (SES) employees; and political appointees. In turn, Title 5 incentive authorities come in three types: recruitment, relocation, and retention (also known as the "three Rs" or "3Rs"). Each incentive authority has the same statutory eligibility requirements. Payment of awards and incentives may be subject to statutory limitations on aggregate compensation.
Potential issues for Congress related to employee awards and incentives include questions of how to provide agencies with effective human resources management tools in light of agency missions and resource levels; how agencies are using these and other authorities to recruit, motivate, reward, and retain high-performing workforces; how to structure oversight and regulation of agency practices within the executive branch; and how to exercise congressional oversight over a civil service system that is increasingly fragmented (i.e., decentralized in execution and customized to individual agencies and workforces).
This report will be updated to reflect changes in authorities or emerging issues.