Title 5Government Organization and EmployeesRelease 119-73

§5523 Duration of payments; rates; active service period

Title 5 › Part PART III— - EMPLOYEES › Subpart Subpart D— - Pay and Allowances › Chapter CHAPTER 55— - PAY ADMINISTRATION › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER III— - ADVANCEMENT, ALLOTMENT, AND ASSIGNMENT OF PAY › § 5523

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Agency heads may pay up to 60 days to an employee (or, in an emergency on a reimbursable basis, to an employee of another agency) when the employee, their dependents, or immediate family are authorized or ordered to leave under section 5522(a). The head may stop those payments. Payments use the employee’s current pay, allowances, and differentials but not more than the pay they had immediately before the departure order. Payments may be adjusted under section 5524 and other laws. The President may approve extra allowances for Executive agency employees to offset direct added expenses. Time paid counts as continuous active service for the U.S. or D.C. government.

Full Legal Text

Title 5, §5523

Government Organization and Employees — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The head of each agency may provide for—
(1)the payment of monetary amounts covering a period of not more than 60 days to or for the account of each employee of the agency (or, under emergency circumstances and on a reimbursable basis, an employee of another agency) whose departure (or that of the employee’s dependents or immediate family, as the case may be) is authorized or ordered under section 5522(a); and
(2)the termination of payment of the monetary amounts.
(b)Subject to adjustment of the account of an employee under section 5524 of this title and other applicable statute, each payment under this section is at rates of pay, allowances, and differentials, or any of them, currently authorized with respect to the employee on the date payment is made under agency procedures governing payments under this section. The rates so authorized may not exceed the rates to which the employee was entitled immediately before issuance of the departure order. An employee in an Executive agency may be granted such additional allowance payments as the President determines necessary to offset the direct added expenses incident to the departure.
(c)Each period for which payment of amounts is made under this section to or for the account of an employee is deemed, for all purposes with respect to the employee, a period of active service, without break in service, performed by the employee in the employment of the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

DerivationU.S. CodeRevised Statutes andStatutes at Large 5 U.S.C. 3073.Sept. 26, 1961, Pub. L. 87–304, § 3, 75 Stat. 663. Standard changes are made to conform with the definitions applicable and the style of this title as outlined in the preface to the report.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1991—Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 102–138 substituted “agency) whose departure (or that of the employee’s dependents or immediate family, as the case may be) is authorized or ordered under section 5522(a); and” for “agency)— “(A) whose departure is authorized or ordered under section 5522(a) of this title; and “(B) who is prevented, by circumstances beyond his control and beyond the control of the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia, or both, as the case may be, from performing the duties of the position which he held immediately before issuance of the departure order; and”. 1980—Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 96–465, § 2303(c), in subpar. (A) substituted “whose departure is authorized or ordered under section 5522(a) of this title; and” for “whose evacuation from a place inside or outside the United States is ordered for military or other reasons which create imminent danger to the life of the employee; and”, and in subpar. (B) substituted “departure” for “evacuation” after “issuance of the”. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 96–465, § 2303(d), substituted “departure” for “evacuation” in two places.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1980 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 96–465 effective Feb. 15, 1981, except as otherwise provided, see section 2403 of Pub. L. 96–465, set out as an

Effective Date

note under section 3901 of Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

5 U.S.C. § 5523

Title 5Government Organization and Employees

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73