I. Welcome (Cliff Lee) -

Cliff asked everyone to remember to sign the sign-in sheet and then discussed the evacuation procedures. If an emergency arises, evacuation instructions will be broadcast through the hall speakers. We will go to the 3rd floor in the event of a lock down. Otherwise, we vacate the building by the rear door and meet in front of American History museum on the mall

II. Retroactive 2003 Pay Adjustment - Phase II (Cliff Lee) -

This retroactive adjustment only applies to agencies in CE, DHS, Treasury, DOJ, USDA/APHIS and FEMA. NFC is currently testing. Lynda and Jody have a meeting scheduled with DHS agencies and NFC South for Thursday, August 21st. Lynda set this up on a request from Lisa.

1. Q: Is this a call for every agency? A: No, only those affected during this next phase, ie., DHS. Cliff indicated that NFC will move PAYE to Thursday night for PP-16 & PP-17 for all agencies, including Treasury. Penny added that the 2nd pass of PAYE will be accelerated as well, which will affect all of us.
   
   
2. Q: Will this affect ADJP as well, will there be only one pass for ADJP? A: Glenda indicated that there will be two passes of ADJP and the 2nd pass will be Friday night. Q: When we get into PP-17, will we hold ADJP. A: Glenda says they plan to start the process on Monday and ADJP will start it's normal process.
   
   
3. Q: Treasury asked why NFC was accelerating PAYE if it is not doing anything over the weekend? A: Glenda indicated that ADJP will still have a lot of activity to process. It takes approximately 20-30 hours worth of jobs to make PAYE for Saturday. This step is not necessarily a time savings, but there is a large process to be completed. NFC wants to ensure it makes Treasury's cut off.
   
   
4. Q: Last time we were not allowed to send in corrected T&A's, can we now? A: Debby Tatum indicated that agencies could send them down.

III. Contract Participation in Client Meetings (Diedre Charlot) -

Penny wanted to pass along clarification in the policy regarding contractor participation in client meetings, including CAPPS. Diedre indicated that NFC realizes that because of staffing policies in some agencies, contractors may play an integral role in providing payroll/personnel support. If a contractor has a contract with a client agency for payroll/personnel support, s/he may be invited to attend a meeting. The non-disclosure clause of the individuals contract with the agency must be adhered to. George reminded the group that the CAPPS charter calls for a representative and alternate to participate in the monthly CAPPS meetings. However, the charter permits additional participants as subject matter topics may dictate. Generally, the agency CAPPS representative is responsible for disseminating information and coordinating action items within his/her.

IV. Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIPs) (Cliff Lee) -

This topic is revisited from last month's CAPPS meeting. At Treasury's request, Cliff again contacted OPM to confirm the information on agency contributions. OPM stated emphatically that the legislation under which the VSIP is paid is the governing law for the respective VSIP. If a VSIP is offered by an Executive Branch agency under the DHS law, no agency contribution is required. If agencies are offering the VSIP under the provisions of another Public Law, that Public Law is governing. For example, IRS and GAO each have separate legislation authorizing VSIP's. Their respective Public Laws require an agency contribution for each VSIP distributed. Dora Lee indicated that NFC is not accepting a 343 to refund the Agency Contribution because it's out of the accounting area; they wanted a waiver from OPM. Treasury requested that NFC issue a bulletin/procedure for processing VSIP's and obtaining reimbursement for erroneous Agency contributions made to OPM. Jo Bonner suggested that Treasury or DHS should request a specific authority code for VSIP's under the DHS public law. Such an authority code would facilitate the identification of VSIP's paid under the DHS legislation.

Q: Ginny - If OPM does not give us an authority code to identify the DHS VSIP, how does the agency go about getting the Agency Contribution back? A: Penny indicated that she will talk with Pat Hanks and find out what the process should be established. She will follow-up.

V. PHIS Modernization (Glenda Dorsey) -

Beginning at noon on August 21st, NFC will take the PHIS system down to enlarge a few fields. She did not believe that any new fields are on the schedule for this modernization. NFC is changing PHIS receiving records. There will probably be some increase in the FOCUS PHIS. NFC will check on their end to ensure that everything is done.

1. Q: Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Is this modernization going to implement the synchronization between PHIS and the EPIC database? A: Penny - No, this modernization will not address that issue. Larry is working on it separately.
   
   
2. Q: Was a bulletin issued on this? A: No, an e-mail was sent today on this topic.
   
   
3. Q: Dora Lee Rosendorf (Treasury) - Will the person responsible for the data dictionary issue something on this? A: Yes, NFC plans to issue something later this week.

VI. Benefits Update (Jody Nyers)

A. TSP Catch Up Contributions became effective in PP 16. Since then many agencies have received suspense errors on this new 126 document. NFC distributed an e-mail indicating there was a problem with the TSP Catch documents going to the suspense file. Apparently something from EEX did not go into production on schedule. Glenda stated that NFC re-ran the import from OPM's Macon office and then reran the job last night.. Any suspense errors on these documents that an agency has as of today, should be legitimate errors and not due to a system issue.

1. Mary Arnold (DOC) said that DOC now has duplicate documents for these, why? A: Glenda said agencies had duplicate documents on Monday night. FQ: Mary said that there are duplicates today, e.g., we have two $2,000 documents and it looks like it ran twice. FA: Glenda said we did not run this twice. FQ: Mary pointed out that if there was only one yesterday, then there should not be two today. DOC had one action with $1,000 and two with $2,000 today where only yesterday it was one with $1,000 and two with $2,000. What's going on? FA: Glenda said she did not know what is causing this. Jody suggested agencies go through the error reports and clean-up the legitimate errors. If you have documents in future, these documents came in from EEX. You will need to review the documents in error and ensure the correct document is released.
   
   
2. Rhonda Hickey (SBA) asked what if the agency encounters duplicate docs where one has a user ID and one has EEX, which do you delete? A: Jody indicated that it does not matter unless there are different dollar amounts. If the amounts are different double check with the employee to determine which dollar amount s/he is requesting be deducted.
   
   
3. Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian) asked if the error only affected EEX entered documents? A: Glenda indicated that it did, based upon what was reported yesterday. George indicated it appears that the problem is related to EEX's attempt to "hold" documents that agencies insisted on being allowed to enter early. That process did not work very well. TSP tried to make sure everyone was aware of what was going on as far as the actual election period (PP-16). It appears that agencies need to make sure that employees understand how this process works. An additional issue is that EEX did not specify "enter the amount of the pay period deduction." Therefore, some individuals will have a $2,000 lump sum deduction because they thought the system (NFC) would divide the amount entered by the nine pay days remaining in the calendar year.
   
   
4. Cheryl Cotton (DOJ) said that she put her action in on Monday and that the EEX confirmation said that it will be affective no later than PP-17. A: Jody - This is the standard EEX message for processing documents just in case the payroll system does not accept the document right away (i.e., it may go to suspense). You need to take this up with EEX if you would prefer a different message displayed.
   
   
5. Will agencies be able to obtain an RFQS letter for TSP catch-up? A: Glenda indicated that she is not sure that NFC continued on with this notification after TSP assumed control of the account distribution. The HR office should know if the document applied to the system by reviewing the data in the system.
   
   
6. DoraLee Rosendorf (Treasury) - If the employee put in a $2,000 deduction, will NFC take it? A: Yes, if the employee has sufficient disposable amount. If they do not have the $2,000 available for that first check, nothing will come out of the system.
   
   
7. Is there an OPM requirement to put the catch-up document in the OPF? A: We have not been notified of one.
   
   
8. Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian) - If the employee puts in $2,000 and does not have it, how do the agencies know about it? A: Debby Tatum will confirm the no deduction for TSP. For Long-Term Care or Flexible Spending Accounts, if the employee has "insufficient" funds for the deduction nothing is deducted. There is no partial deduction. FQ: If there is not enough money to take the first pay period, will the system continue to try in subsequent pay periods? FA: We do not know, Debbie is checking on this. POST MEETING UPDATE: If there are insufficient funds in a given pay period for a TSP Catch-up contribution, nothing will be deducted in that pay period. However, the pay period election will cycle through each pay period until the $2,000 CAP is reached or the end of the calendar year, whichever comes first. For example, if the employee elected four payments of $500 each beginning in PP-16, but could not make the first payment, the deductions would be pushed back to PP-17 for four payments. NFC would NOT deduct $1,000 in the next check.
   
   
9. Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian) - What about a notification? A: NFC is checking on this.
   
   
10. Is the 126 document available in PRES for data entry? A: Glenda - No they're looking at the numbers in suspense to see if it is necessary prior to this weekend. In order to bring up the new document in PRES, NFC will have to recycle the CV's and then it may be down for a couple of days. Therefore, NFC is currently planning to wait until Saturday to implement.
    
    
11. Jody - What about the SINQ126? A: That is tied to the PRES 126. FQ: Jody - Should PPSPS send an e-mail to CAPPS alerting the users, or will Margaret handle it. FA: Penny indicated that Margaret's staff will handle it. POST MEETING UPDATE: - Johanna Heller e-mailed the notice on August 23, 2003.
    
    
12. Lucy McCabe (FDIC) - The data field size for the Federal TSP Catch-up is 4 characters. for the Federal catch-up. Did NFC also change the non-Federal catch-up from 3 to 4 characters? A: Glenda - no, not yet. FQ: Is it going to be updated? FA: Glenda - not this year as it will take another database change to increase that field to 4 positions. Had we used the same screen we would have done it. For different reasons, the decision was made not to use the same document. It's on the schedule for next year.
    

B. TSP contribution election periods - New legislation is pending to abolish the statutory limit for the TSP waiting periods. If this happens, the TSP eligibility codes will become a non-issue - after NFC makes the programming changes.

C. Flexible Spending Account Update - Lori Bodenhiemer from OPM will attend next month's CAPPS meeting. She could not make today's meeting.

1. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - If the agency has coded these actions incorrectly, this means it will be rejected by SHPS and the agency needs to fix it. This is not an NFC problem.
   
   
2. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - OPM has not documented the problem with the calculator. If the employee accidentally signs up, only has one deduction, and has not made any claims; OPM has indicated they can get out of the program.
   
   
3. Steve Cunningham is still working on the FSA reports for the reporting system.

POST MEETING NOTE: The two reports are now available via the Reporting Center, in the Workforce area, under Flex Fund. When you select this report, you have the option of choosing between two report displays.

D. E&L statement changes - There is a proposal to modify the E&L transaction codes for the TSP catch-up 75/16. The recommendation is to indicate "TSP tax deferred x" with a fill-in of FERS or CSRS as appropriate and "TSP tax deferred catch-up". Bettina (TR) wanted a split of the 401 and 401K catch-up plans. She is proposing that it be changed to "401K" and "401K catch-up." Jody asked if CAPPS agreed to this? All agreed.

1. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Q: Will the retirement plan be listed? A: If room permits.
   
   
2. Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian) - Q: What if you have TSP tax deferred and TSP catch-up? Is there any TSP that is not tax deferred? A: No. FR: Tom suggested that NFC remove the reference to tax deferred in both categories. CAPPS agreed.

   POST MEETING UPDATE: Information faxed and emailed to NFC South for updating.

VII. Masking SSN on the Earning & Leave statements (George Morris) -

This is a result of a TR request that came in several months ago. We are talking about masking the SSN on the printed E&L only. At the time this issue was raised, NFC requested that users also consider any other comparable issues (e.g., masking on other documents sent out by NFC). However, no interest has been expressed to date. Based on the above, the proposal will go down requesting a masking of the first 5 digits of the SSN, on the printed E&L only.

1. Mary Arnold (DOC) - This should also be done on the printed benefits statement. A: The benefits statement has already been done.
   
   
2. DoraLee Rosendorf (TR) - When will it be implemented since DHS wants it immediately? A: George will submit it this afternoon and does not know how long it will take.

   POST MEETING UPDATE: The computer virus attack at USDA prevented submission following the meeting. It was submitted on 8/28/2003 and is scheduled for implementation in PP-18. NFC is also installing additional hardware in the mail room to prevent multiple E&L's in the same envelop and plan to co-ordinate both releases.

VIII. PMSO (George Morris) -

When OPM implemented the Supervisory Code 7 - GS Leader, NFC made the changes - or thought that we did - but we have since found that the changes were put in test, but not moved to production. The "7" has been a valid code, but it did not show on the help screens, nor was it mentioned in the PMSO documentation. The programming has now been moved to production. Some individual PMSO records have valid "7"'s which may mean that we moved it originally, but that it may have accidentally been removed back out at some past time.

IX. Obligated SSN's & Promotions - (George Morris) -

This problem arises when the individual is promoted but stays within the same organization. If the employee subsequently crosses agency lines as a permanent promotion action, PMSO can only clear (either) the position of record or the temporary record, but not both. This problem came to light with the 1% retro processing problems. NFC still has ongoing PMSO issues with this. The ideal solution would be for processors to move the employee back to the position of record before releasing them.

1. Bettina (TR-OCC) had a similar problem where the individuals were not on temporary positions. A: Did you submit it to NFC? FR: They submitted it thought TR HQ. FA: Neither George nor Lynda had heard of this issue. Please make sure that the get a copy of this issue.

X. Employee Express Update (George Morris) -

EEX discussed the results of the spring release at yesterday's meeting. They have worked out the problems. EEX is planning two stages of "Fall release" because of all of the items on the agenda. This should have no big impact for the CAPPS community. Each agency has its own EEX reps that attend the meetings, so we will not go into massive detail.

XI. Employee Personal Page (EPP) (Steve Cunningham) -

Currently employees can update or change their financial allotments, TSP, TSP catch-up, direct deposit, allotments, home address, and taxes.

A. Phase 3 - Will add start/change/stop/rotate owners on savings bonds; FEHB open season (enroll/ change/cancel); non-open season FEHB cancel or downgrade coverage, as well as, establish new enrollees; RFQS ticklers will be available, and FEHB premium conversion.

B. Testing will be September 29 through October 17. Testers will need access to IDMS 61-dict03 IRIS, SINQ, and EPIC parallel 2. No special access is needed for the EPP. The test is open to anyone who wants to test. If you are interested in testing, Send e-mail to Polly.Smith@usda.gov by September 10th. Specify the SSN's you want to use.

1. Q: Can agencies provide org codes in lieu of SSN's? A: Yes. ESS is actually a FESI client so they will be testing a special FESI window.
   

C. Implementation is planned for November 3rd. Allow two weeks for the security request to be processed so please submit this soon!

D. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - E-gov is reviewing the rotating bond issue in standardization. Apparently NFC is the only payroll office doing this. TR is providing comments. NFC is making comments as requested on this. Cliff said the standardization team is meeting next week and their recommendations will be shipped up to the board for review and then they are expected to go to the agencies for comment. Dora Lee is trying to get agencies to speak up on the rotating bonds issue, otherwise it may be dropped.

E. Q: Will EPP be like EEX and automatically send a PIN for new employees? A: If you want a mandatory EPP, Polly says they can do that. An Agency Level request must be received by NFC and when this is done, you will want to turn off the paper ELS. Send the request to: NFC.GESDREQUEST@usda.gov

F. Sue McMenamin (FMCS) - How are you determining if employee's have the maximum in order to turn on the catch up? A: If the employee elected a percentage, the system can edit on it. If the employee elected a dollar amount, the calculations are too cumbersome to load so the TSP catch-up icon will automatically be loaded.

G. Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian) - Back to the EPP PIN Numbers, if the agency requests that a PIN be automatically sent to employees, does that imply that they are making it mandatory for their employees to use EPP? A: Steve indicated that the agency would only be requesting for agency-wide Employee Personnel Page and not ESS. Do you want NFC to send out a PIN as an incentive? FR: Tom pointed out that EEX will send a PIN number even if the employee does not want to use it. FA: Penny pointed out that there is a difference between the EPP and the ESS. Steve was addressing the issue of turning off of the E&L's but agencies need to realize that the EPP and the ESS are not different from a PIN standpoint. A user gets one PIN which allows access to both applications. An employee can elect ESS and/or EPP. The agency and/or employee can submit the request for EPP and/or ESS. One PIN gets you access to both systems. If the agency request says both, NFC would send out the PIN number but the employee does not have to use it. NFC is not mandating this EPP or ESS. This is controlled at the agency POI level. Agencies have the choice to put the information out there or not just like they do with EEX.

H. Bettina (TR-OCC) - Is employee data on the EPP when the PIN is sent out or when the employee accesses it?. A: Steve indicated that EPP data is loaded when a PIN is issued. If the employee only requests ESS access, then the EPP data is not loaded.

I. Sue McMenamin (FMCS) - Can an employee turn off EPP/ESS? A: Yes. Since 1997, it has happened only three times. To do this the employee would send an email to the NFC webmaster requesting that the information be removed.

J. DoraLee Rosendorf (TR) - If a bureau does not want ESS automatically turned on, can an employee ask for ESS? A: The ESS functionality can be blocked to the agency level. However, the default is the agency employee can request access.

XII. Special Employee Pay Codes (JO Bonner)

Cleanup! A report will be distributed at the next CAPPS meeting for assistance in this endeavor. There are many codes that have been abolished 5-10 years ago that are still assigned to employees. Please clean up these codes. As more clients are coming on, we may re-establish a code that you had used for an employee and did not clean up. As a result errors could occur in the employee's pay as a result of the new programming. In addition, there are "active" values that may no longer be needed by an agency.

A. Q: Where is this data? A: The current values can be found on Table 25, 075. The employee's information is reflected on IR102 and IR122. This is one of those fields that is not always updated as personnel actions are processed on the individual changing his entitlements. These codes are used for a variety of different things. Based upon the value in this field and other items in the employee's record and on the T&A, PAYE does something special in payment side of the system.

XIII. Conversion of Military Leave from Days to Hours (JO Bonner) -

A. PL 106-554 Section 101(a) - Over two years ago a request regarding the changes that should be made in the Military days to hours conversion programming was prepared by the T&A Requirements Work group. The package was presented to CAPPS and everyone agreed. This programming will be implemented in PP-19.

B. Uniform Service Status field - One of the items in the that package included adding edits to limit the usage of military leave to only those individuals who were coded as eligible via the Uniform Service Status (USS) field. Preliminary reports indicate that several employees are incorrect because they are on LWOP-US and have "0" in the USS field or are coded as simply retired. . Agencies need to be on top of this and a lot of clean up work will be needed before PP-19's T&A's are submitted. With this change four new codes were created. The values can be found on Table 25, block 102. Codes were added to show individuals who were Retired Mil Reg and Non Reg and also in the Reserves/National Guard. Two of the new codes were created specifically for the DC National Guard even those this will not be fully programmed in PP-19.

1. Q: What are the valid values and their tiles. A: JO was unable to obtain this information from tables due to system problems. However, TMGT was updated and agency reps should go print a report from there with the valid values for PP 19.
   
   
2. Q: DoraLee Rosenforf (TR) - If agencies do not have a value and a T&A is submitted, what happens? A: The T&A will reject.
   
   
3. JO indicated that agencies should process the updates via the 006 Update Action. Users should go into the IR122 screen and use the effective date and authentication date of the last action you processed for this 006 document. If you do not do this, a HCUP case could be a mess to correct. Lynda has already warned that HCUP cases become more difficult if updates are made at times other than when a personnel document is processed.
   
   
4. Copies of a report to assist with this were to be handed out, but due to technical difficulties the reports are not printing.

C. T&A xmit layout - FYI for non-STAR users, the T&A xmit layout will NOT change with this phase. However, it may change in with later military leave programming.

D. Q&A's

1. Q: This deals with the change from days to hours. Will the layout look different? A: Yes. The layout should make more sense and be more user friendly. Mil LWOP is changing and will appear better on the screen.
   
   
2. Q: Is PP 19 a split pay period? A: Yes, the system need to catch the hours as of Oct 1st which means it done as a split T&A.
   
   
3. Q: Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Will they make the change to the emergency military leave? A: No. It is already in hours and works on a calendar year basis.
   
   
4. Q: Rhonda Hickey (SBA) - For TIME and PAYE, this would still be in hours, they will get paid in hours, and leave record will be in hours. A: Yes, as of Oct 1st, NFC will capture what the hours are on the system and do the switch over at that time. This minimizes agency cleanup.
   
   
5. Q: Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - What happens to the unused carryover when they go into Oct 1st which is now in days? A: That information will be converted to the appropriate hours. The requirements specified a field to be there visually to help the agencies.
   
   
6. Q: Will EPP be updated as well? A: all systems associated with this will be updated. A bulletin will be issued shortly. Q: Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian) - Will it be distributed electronically? A: The bulletin will be posted on the home page but you might get it in hard copy as well. Q: Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - When NFC issue's the bulletin, will it be in advance of PP-19? A: The bulletin will be issued soon and hopefully before PP 19. However, it is being raised in CAPPS so that agencies can begin working on this cleanup and be ready for PP-19.

XIV. User & Work Group Updates

A. Awards (JO Bonner) The next meeting is September 10th from 9:30 to 11:30 here in the Lincoln room.

1. The 848 - Referral Bonus was implemented in PP-16 and the bulletin has been issued on this. Q: Is TR the only agency using PACT? If yes, you won't be using that NOAC and the bulletin does not state this. A: Lynda indicated that NFC is making no changes to the old application and agencies will not be able to use the 848 in them.
   
   
2. The programming for the increase in the award amounts for 878's, Senior Foreign Service (SFS) Meritorious and Distinguished Awards to match the amounts granted to SES's is in the works. JO should have an update on this by the next meeting. NFC has received some complaints from agencies that have processed these and the old amounts were displayed. This is because the new values are not there, they should be processed manually at present if they cannot be held until the programming is in place. The follow-up documentation can be entered with a do not pay at a later date.

   POST MEETING UPDATE: Implementation for this is scheduled for PP-18.

B. EPIC (Lynda Wilson) The next EPIC User Group Meeting is August 21st at 10 a.m. in Lincoln.

1. Access to PACT, PRES, & PEP51 - Penny indicated that we are not going to continue these older applications. NFC discussed this with the Treasury reps when they visited the Center last week. The reps know it is time to move to EPIC.

C. FESI - no update. Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian) inquired as to who is the FESI User group contact because their contractors are looking into this. Is Hans still the lead on this? A: As far as PPSPS has been informed, Hans is still the contact.

D. Leave Share (JO Bonner) - no update

E. RIF (Debby Berry) - There is no update. It has been over a year since the RIF requirements were submitted to NFC and they still have not heard from NFC South. Rick had said he would get back with the group before testing occurs. R: Penny will get us an implementation pay period and a testing update It's being discussed to be put on the Reporting Center. Steve will contact Debby.

F. T&A (JO Bonner)

1. User Group meets September 4th from 9:30 to 11:30 - For those that may not be aware of what this group does, they discusses on-going, live T&A issues (i.e., STARweb, processing, military leave, day-to-day operations). The group meets the first payday Thursday each month. Agencies are welcome to send reps.
   
   
2. Requirements Work Group meets September 4th from 1 to 3 - This group consists of individuals with policy backgrounds/authority in the agency and focuses on the T&A/Leave policies as the affect future system and changes. They are two separate groups based upon agendas but depending on the expertise level (or staffing within the agency) the same individual may attend both groups.

XV. Potpourri

A. Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian) - The amount reflected in IRIS for the retention allowance is incorrect. The original amount does not increase as an employee's pay is increased. The database is never re-adjusted. The SF-50 continues to print incorrectly. The staff is getting tired of correcting the SF-50's before sending them out. Last May's notes indicate that Cliff had submitted an SPR on this. Cliff does not have an update on the SPR. He will check on it.

B. Betinna (OCC) - the above is a serious issue for them also because the SF-50 is an official document and should be correct when printed.

C. Tom (Smithsonian) - is there anybody here that knows of a way to change the performance anniversary date from a set date to a yearly anniversary date. Lynda - yes it is a table change send the request to GESD. Tom - they are looking to change the employee's individual performance anniversary date for EOD's. Until you do an appraisal form, it defaults to the EOD anniversary date. It sounds like Smithsonian has it set-up this way. They will need to request a change to the programming.

D. Maria (GAO) - they have 500 hundred employees that had the professional category field (PATCO) wiped out. This is an ongoing issue and they have not heard back from NFC south. Send it to George and he can pursue.

E. Cheryl (USDA) - USDA is having a problem going through the GESD response line. Her requests are getting into a loop because the agency wants a ball-park figure so they can budget or yea/nay the request. GESD is saying they won't give an estimate. This is new for USDA, because they don't have a standard agreement. The working capital is taken out of the budgets right up front. Penny - she left a message for her and she might have already left for the meeting. Sometimes this is an issue if NFC doesn't have the final requirements, they cannot give an estimate. She was specifically told they need the reimbursable first.

F. Debbie (FCC) - Retirement actions being submitted late. NFC does a report on whether they (Brad Womack's group) are submitting retirement actions late. He indicated that they are understaffed and that is why the documents were not going out on time. Is anyone else having this problem? Penny - they are reviewing Debbie's issue and are looking at contractor help to prevent them from being late. Cheryl - didn't Eleanor do something about the dates being off. Haven't heard about this.

G. SPPS web update - depends on the STAR web resolutions. Still no date for implementation.

H. Ginny (BPD) - her 113A report for June didn't add up correctly. JO suggested she re-run it since they did make some changes. Penny, if that doesn't work then retry????