PRIA Logo™
Title 5, Government Organization and EmployeesRelease 119-110

§5523 Duration of Payments; Rates; Active Service Period

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

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Agency heads can pay up to 60 days of money to an employee (or, in an emergency, to an employee of another agency if that agency will repay the cost) when the employee’s departure is authorized or ordered under the law. The agency can also stop those payments. For Executive agencies, the President can extend the 60-day limit by up to 120 more days if he decides it serves the United States. Payments must use the employee’s current pay rate, allowances, and any extra pay in effect on the payment date, but not more than the rates the employee had right before the departure order. Other laws may allow adjustments. The paid period counts as active government service with no break for all purposes.

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.
The President, with respect to the Executive agencies, may extend the 60-day period for not more than 120 additional days if he determines that the extension of the period is in the interest of the United States.
(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 5, Government Organization and Employees

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110