6 U.S.C. § 292 — Voluntary separation incentive payments

(a) Definitions (1) "Employee" means someone (as defined by title 5) who has worked at least 3 years continuously for a covered entity, has an appointment without a time limit, and isn't in certain excluded categories under a specific 2002 law. (2) "Covered entity" means the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Border Security, or the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (both under the Department of Homeland Security). (3) "Transfer date" is the date the transfer of functions under section 251 of this title takes effect. (b) Strategic restructuring plan Before spending any money on these buyout payments, the Attorney General or the Secretary must send Congress a restructuring plan. The plan must include: (1) an organization chart showing the agencies after restructuring; (2) a summary of how the buyout payments will help the restructuring; and (3) information required by a specific 2002 law. "Appropriate committees of Congress" means the House Appropriations, Government Reform, and Judiciary Committees, and the Senate Appropriations, Governmental Affairs, and Judiciary Committees. (c) Authority The Attorney General and the Secretary can make these voluntary payments to employees, as needed to carry out their restructuring plans. Each payment: (1) is paid in one lump sum, after the employee has actually left the job; (2) comes from the funds normally used to pay that employee's salary; (3) equals the smaller of (A) what the employee would get under a separate law (5 U.S.C. § 5595(c)), or (B) $25,000, whichever the Attorney General or Secretary decides; (4) can only be paid if the employee retires or resigns before whichever comes first: 3 months after being offered the payment, or 3 years after November 25, 2002; (5) doesn't count toward, or get included in figuring, any other government benefit; and (6) doesn't count when figuring any severance pay the employee might get under section 5595 of title 5 for a different, later separation. (d) Additional agency contributions to the retirement fund (1) Each fiscal year the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security makes these buyout payments, it must also send extra money to the Office of Personnel Management, to be deposited in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund. (2) That extra amount is whichever is greater of two ways to calculate it: (A) First method: the minimum amount needed to cover the extra cost these buyouts create for the retirement system, as the Office of Personnel Management calculates it. (B) Second method: 45 percent of the total final basic pay of all employees who took a buyout that year. (3) This calculation covers employees who separated during that specific fiscal year. (4) "Final basic pay" means the yearly basic pay rate the employee was earning when they left, adjusted proportionally if they worked part-time. (e) Effect of subsequent employment with the Government If someone takes a buyout payment and then, within 5 years, takes a paid job with the government (including through a personal services contract), they must repay the entire buyout amount before their first day back. They pay it to the agency they left, or — if this happens on or after the transfer date — to the Deputy Secretary or the Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security, to be passed along to the right part of the Department of Homeland Security. (f) Effect on employment levels (1) These buyouts aren't meant to necessarily shrink the total number of full-time jobs at any covered agency. (2) An agency can reuse the job slots freed up by buyouts to create positions in more urgent locations or job types.