Volume 145, No. 55 covering the 1st Session of the 106th Congress (1999 - 2000) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“INTRODUCTION OF THE FEDERAL EMPLOYEE FLEXIBILITY ACT OF 1999” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E731 on April 21, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INTRODUCTION OF THE FEDERAL EMPLOYEE FLEXIBILITY ACT OF 1999
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HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON
of the district of columbia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, April 21, 1999
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to reintroduce the Federal Employee Flexibility Act of 1999. This bill will extend to federal employees the same commuting benefits that have been given to private sector employees under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st century (TEA-21). This is a very important bill which could have a significant impact in helping the Washington metropolitan region and a great many others with federal employees come into attainment with Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards. For this reason, I am introducing this bill in time for Earth Day. Senators John Chafee and Daniel Patrick Moynihan also recognize the potential environmental benefits of this bill, and they are reintroducing companion legislation in the Senate today.
Prior to the enactment of TEA-21, the federal tax code contained an anomaly that in practice discouraged employers from using mass transportation or other means other than driving. Previously, employers could provide tax-free up to $65 per month ($100 by 2002) in transit benefits in lieu of taxable salary. However, if any employee within a company elected to take the salary instead of the transit benefit, the transit passes for all the other employees would lose their tax-free status. This made employers wary of offering any transit benefits.
Likewise, employers were allowed to offer tax-free parking up to a value of $170 per employee in lieu of some other taxable benefit, such as salary. However, if any employee chose to receive the taxable benefit rather than parking privileges, the parking of all employees of the company became taxable. The result was that employers were encouraged to grant all employees tax-free parking and employees were given no choice as to ``cashing out'' the benefit and commuting by other means such as walking or car pooling.
TEA-21 included language that eliminated this all-or-nothing approach for the private sector. However, federal employees were inadvertently left out of this more flexible approach. Federal compensation law must be modified to specifically authorize federal employees to have the option of receiving transit, parking, or additional salary. The bill that I introduce today provides this specific authorization.
The absence of a specific authorization has had a greater negative impact on the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area than on other cities and regions. As the federal city, Washington, D.C. has a far greater percentage of federal workers than other cities. In addition, the region has the second worst traffic congestion in the United States, behind the Los Angeles area. I believe my bill will go a long way toward relieving some of that unbearable congestion if federal employees who live in Maryland, Virginia, and outlying areas of the District are given incentives to commute into downtown Washington by means other than driving every day.
Since coming to Congress, I have worked hard to ensure that federal agencies and their accompanying jobs remain in the District. Last year, I signed a Federal Facilities Recruitment and Retention Pledge for Washington D.C. and its Inner Suburbs to ``actively work to locate Washington Metro area federal facilities within \1/2\ mile of a Metrorail station'' and to ``give preference in federal facility location decisions to sites first within the Nation's Capital . . .'' This is a critical goal, and I work hard to carry out this pledge. However, we do not have much trouble getting federal agencies to remain in the District, and indeed have insufficient land for many federal facilities that would prefer to be here. Our greatest unmet challenges are the air quality and the congestion that pose immediate and dangerous threats to the quality of life, the growth, and the economy of this region. This bill is an important step toward moving us in the quest to overtake this challenge. I urge the support of Members as well to eliminate unintentional discrimination in benefits for federal employees when compared to those this body has already granted private sector employees.
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