§5928 — Title 5 Government Organization and Employees | U.S. Code

Summary

Employees abroad can get danger pay when civil insurrection, civil war, terrorism, or wartime conditions threaten their safety or health. It cannot exceed 35 percent of basic pay; other special pay for the same assignment counts toward that limit. Nonessential personnel or dependents do not stop payment. The Secretary of State must notify the Speaker and Senate Foreign Relations Committee when danger pay starts or stops and explain why.

Title 5, §5928

Government Organization and Employees — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

An employee serving in a foreign area may be granted a danger pay allowance on the basis of civil insurrection, civil war, terrorism, or wartime conditions which threaten physical harm or imminent danger to the health or well-being of the employee. A danger pay allowance may not exceed 35 percent of the basic pay of the employee, except that if an employee is granted an additional differential under section 5925(b) of this title with respect to an assignment, the sum of that additional differential and any danger pay allowance granted to the employee with respect to that assignment may not exceed 35 percent of the basic pay of the employee. The presence of nonessential personnel or dependents shall not preclude payment of an allowance under this section. In each instance where an allowance under this section is initiated or terminated, the Secretary of State shall inform the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate of the action taken and the circumstances justifying it.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2005—Pub. L. 109–140 substituted “35 percent of the basic pay of the employee” for “25 percent of the basic pay of the employee or 35 percent of the basic pay of the employee in the case of an employee of the United States Agency for International Development” in two places. 2004—Pub. L. 108–199 inserted “or 35 percent of the basic pay of the employee in the case of an employee of the United States Agency for International Development” after “25 percent of the basic pay of the employee” in two places. 1983—Pub. L. 98–164 inserted provision that presence of nonessential personnel or dependents shall not preclude payment of an allowance under this section, and that each instance where an allowance under this section is initiated or terminated, the Secretary of State shall inform the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate of action taken and circumstances justifying it.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective Feb. 15, 1981, except as otherwise provided, see section 2403 of Pub. L. 96–465, set out as a note under section 3901 of Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse. Danger Pay Allowance; DEA or FBI Employee Pub. L. 101–246, title I, § 151, Feb. 16, 1990, 104 Stat. 42, as amended by Pub. L. 107–273, div. C, title I, § 11005, Nov. 2, 2002, 116 Stat. 1817; Pub. L. 116–260, div. B, title II, § 221, Dec. 27, 2020, 134 Stat. 1266, provided that: “The Secretary of State may not deny a request by the Drug

Enforcement

Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the United States Marshals Service to authorize a danger pay allowance (under section 5928 of title 5, United States Code) for any employee of such agency.” Greater Utilization of Danger Pay Allowance Pub. L. 98–533, title III, § 304, Oct. 19, 1984, 98 Stat. 2711, provided that: “In recognition of the current epidemic of worldwide terrorist activity and the courage and sacrifice of employees of United States agencies overseas, civilian as well as military, it is the sense of Congress that the provisions of section 5928 of title 5, United States Code, relating to the payment of danger pay allowance, should be more extensively utilized at United States missions abroad.”

§5928 Danger pay allowance