Originally Posted by
FliesWay2Much
He's lying. Every federal agency can award spot bonuses. I would certainly challenge his authority to simply throw money at his clerks. OPM regulations require that each cash award be individually justified. So, each clerk has to have a citation signed by the proper supervisors and by the CFO identifying the fund cite (pot of money) from where the bonus is taken. Of course, each clerk will be required to pay appropriate federal, state and local income taxes. And, too bad for his clerks who don't wear the spiffy blue uniforms.
I don't think that there are any uniformed clerks. Those are Officers.
As an aside, OPM rules do permit spot awards to described "groups" and do not require a specific citation for each Officer. E.g., the Administrator could describe a group as being "all Officers who worked X hours across the holiday period and therefore contributed to...."
It is close to a 100% guarantee that the Administrator has clearance from both his Secretary and OPM to do this and that OPM consulted with his White House liaison.