In a hearing last week, the House Subcommittee on Health held a hearing to review the compensation of HHS employees and employees within the Environmental Protection Agency. The committee cited a report from the Government Accountability Office that found HHS had boosted its use of Title 42 hiring by 25 percent in the past five years, according to The Hill report.
Title 42 pertains to the hiring of specialists who have specific salary requirements, such as those working for the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report found 1,461 HHS employees are paid more than $155,000, which is more than most federal employees. Some HHS employees make more than $350,000 — $100,000 more than the vice president, according to a news release from the office of Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas).
Rep. Barton has introduced the HHS Employee Compensation Reform Act of 2012, which would establish salary caps and boost Congressional oversight of Title 42 pay practices.
“Bureaucrats at HHS and the EPA are using Title 42 as an alternative pay system that circumvents the pay structures that Congress creates to make sure hard-working taxpayer dollars are spent judiciously,” Rep. Barton said in an opening statement at the hearing. “Title 42 was not created to unnecessarily inflate government employees’ salaries. It is clear that legislation is needed to reign in this practice.”
The attention comes days after an investigation concluded HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius broke a federal law in February when she promoted President Obama’s re-election.
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