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Title 31, Money and FinanceRelease 119-110

§9703 Managerial Accountability and Flexibility

Title 31 › SUBTITLE VI — MISCELLANEOUS › CHAPTER 97 — MISCELLANEOUS › § 9703

Last updated Sep 23, 2026|Official source

Summary

Agencies may ask, starting in fiscal year 1999, to drop or loosen some internal rules in their annual performance plans. These requests can cover things like required staffing levels, limits on pay or bonuses, and rules about moving money among certain budget categories (budget object classification 20 and subclassifications 11, 12, 31, and 32). The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviews and may approve these requests. If approved, a waiver starts at the beginning of that fiscal year. Each request must explain and measure how more flexibility will improve performance. It must show expected gains compared to current results and to what would happen without the waiver. Any pay changes must be shown in exact dollar amounts for meeting, exceeding, or missing goals. If the waiver affects rules set by another agency, that agency must agree in writing. OMB can approve a waiver for one or two years and can renew it. After three years in a row, a waiver (except pay changes) may be proposed to become permanent. Definitions from the related performance-plan rules apply.

Full Legal Text

Title 31, §9703

Money and Finance, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Beginning with fiscal year 1999, the performance plans required under section 1115 may include proposals to waive administrative procedural requirements and controls, including specification of personnel staffing levels, limitations on compensation or remuneration, and prohibitions or restrictions on funding transfers among budget object classification 20 and subclassifications 11, 12, 31, and 32 of each annual budget submitted under section 1105, in return for specific individual or organization accountability to achieve a performance goal. In preparing and submitting the performance plan under section 1105(a)(29), the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall review and may approve any proposed waivers. A waiver shall take effect at the beginning of the fiscal year for which the waiver is approved.
(b)Any such proposal under subsection (a) shall describe the anticipated effects on performance resulting from greater managerial or organizational flexibility, discretion, and authority, and shall quantify the expected improvements in performance resulting from any waiver. The expected improvements shall be compared to current actual performance, and to the projected level of performance that would be achieved independent of any waiver.
(c)Any proposal waiving limitations on compensation or remuneration shall precisely express the monetary change in compensation or remuneration amounts, such as bonuses or awards, that shall result from meeting, exceeding, or failing to meet performance goals.
(d)Any proposed waiver of procedural requirements or controls imposed by an agency (other than the proposing agency or the Office of Management and Budget) may not be included in a performance plan unless it is endorsed by the agency that established the requirement, and the endorsement included in the proposing agency’s performance plan.
(e)A waiver shall be in effect for one or two years as specified by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in approving the waiver. A waiver may be renewed for a subsequent year. After a waiver has been in effect for three consecutive years, the performance plan prepared under section 1115 may propose that a waiver, other than a waiver of limitations on compensation or remuneration, be made permanent.
(f)For purposes of this section, the definitions under section 1115(f) 1 shall apply.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 1105(a)(29), referred to in subsec. (a), was redesignated section 1105(a)(28) of this title by Pub. L. 104–287, § 4(1), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3388. section 1115, referred to in subsec. (f), was repealed, and a new section 1115 enacted, by Pub. L. 111–352, § 3, Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3867. As reenacted, definitions in former section 1115(f) are now contained in section 1115(h) of this title. Codification Another section 9703 was renumbered section 9705 of this title.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Construction

No provision or amendment made by Pub. L. 103–62 to be construed as creating any right, privilege, benefit, or entitlement for any person who is not an officer or employee of the United States acting in such capacity, and no person not an officer or employee of the United States acting in such capacity to have standing to file any civil action in any court of the United States to enforce any provision or amendment made by Pub. L. 103–62, or to be construed as superseding any statutory requirement, see section 10 of Pub. L. 103–62, set out as a

Construction

of 1993 Amendment note under section 1101 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

31 U.S.C. § 9703

Title 31, Money and Finance

Last Updated

Sep 23, 2026

Release point: 119-110