[Federal Register: January 9, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 5)]
[Notices]               
[Page 1456-1457]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr09ja06-80]                         

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OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

 
Solicitation of Federal Civilian and Uniformed Service Personnel 
for Contributions to Private Voluntary Organizations--CFC Pilot Program 
for Department of Defense (DoD) Personnel Deployed Overseas

AGENCY: Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is implementing a 
Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) pilot program for a selected number of 
local campaigns. This pilot program will allow Department of Defense 
(DoD) personnel deployed to certain warfighting areas of responsibility 
the opportunity to expand their giving options to include the Morale, 
Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) activities and/or to the local charities 
located within the corresponding stateside campaign associated with 
their home base, in addition to the National and International 
charities. OPM will assess the results of the pilot program and 
determine, in coordination with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, 
if a permanent change should be made to CFC regulations and DoD 
Directive 5035-1.

DATES: The Office of Personnel Management's Office of CFC Operations 
(OCFCO) will work with the CFC Overseas (CFC-O) Campaign to determine 
the campaigns eligible to participate in the pilot program for the 2006 
CFC no later than March 2006. The OCFCO will provide guidance to the 
selected campaigns on how to process receipts from the CFC-O Campaign 
under the pilot program no later than June 30, 2006. Affected deployed 
donors whose assigned home base is located within one of these selected 
campaigns will be provided the two additional options for contributing 
to the 2006 CFC described below beginning on September 1, 2006 and 
ending approximately December 15, 2006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mark W. Lambert, Senior Compliance 
Officer for the Office of CFC Operations, by telephone at (202) 606-
2564; by Fax

[[Page 1457]]

at (202) 606-0902; or by e-mail at cfc@opm.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: To address the loss of CFC contributions 
experienced by local organizations due to the deployment of DoD 
personnel to certain warfighting area of responsibility, DoD and OPM 
are implementing a one-year pilot program designed to allow those 
deployed DoD personnel to adjust their CFC contributions so the 
contributions can be designated to the donor's home base MWR activities 
and/or the local charities located within the corresponding stateside 
campaign associated with their home base, in addition to the National 
and International charities. In the absence of this pilot program, CFC 
regulations limit CFC designations from deployed DoD personnel to 
national/international charities, or to MWR activities overseas. This 
pilot program will expire at the end of the 2006 CFC or approximately 
December 15, 2006.
    Under the pilot program, the CFC-O Campaign will offer affected 
deployed DoD personnel a modified CFC-O Campaign pledge card that will 
contain two added donation options, as follows:
    (1) Each deployed employee may designate a portion of their 
donation to their home base's MWR activities; and/or, (2) Each deployed 
employee may elect to apply a portion of their total contribution as a 
designated contribution for distribution among all local charities 
located within the geographic area of their home base campaign.
    OPM will evaluate the costs and logistics tied to the 
implementation of the new options in anticipation of making it a 
permanent change in the regulations.
    These designated contributions will be distributed by CFC-O 
Campaign to the local campaign associated with the donor's home base as 
if the recipient campaign was a participating CFC-O Campaign charity, 
with the final payments in the distribution cycle sent early enough 
that the recipient campaign can include them in its final payment to 
charities. The home base campaign, in turn, will be directed to 
distribute these designated funds, at no cost, to all local charities 
in the same manner as local undesignated contributions (i.e. in the 
same proportion that each charity received designations in the local 
campaign). Home base campaigns will only need to adjust their 
distribution schedules and include these CFC-O Campaign contributions 
in their regular monthly/quarterly distributions to the local charities 
and track as cash received. Under this pilot program, donated funds 
will be reduced by the proportionate share of the CFC-O Campaign 
expenses only prior to distribution to the home base campaigns. 
Consequently, the home base campaigns will be directed not to charge 
additional processing costs to distribute these donations, since there 
is no additional cost associated with either the collection or 
distribution of the funds.
    DoD personnel deployed to the affected warfighting areas of 
responsibility, regardless of the length of time, are officially 
assigned to the command to which they have been deployed. Therefore, 
personnel deployed to the affected warfighting areas of responsibility 
during the campaign season can only be solicited by the campaign 
responsible for the geographic area of the command. The exception to 
this rule is when a Navy ship has been deployed but is still considered 
``homeported.'' In this instance, the local campaign should continue to 
solicit the donor stationed on the homeported ship.
    CFC regulations at 5 CFR 950.701 state that the CFC-O Campaign is 
the only authorized campaign to solicit overseas areas during the CFC 
solicitation period in the fall. Under no circumstances may the 
stateside campaigns solicit personnel deployed overseas. Sanctions may 
result for violations of this rule.

    Authority: E.O. 12353 (March 23, 1982), 47 FR 12785 (March 25, 
1982). 3 CFR 1982 Comp., p. 139. E.O. 12404 (February 10, 1983), 48 
FR 6685 (February 15, 1983), Pub. L 100-202, and Pub. L. 102-393 (5 
U.S.C. 1101 Note).

U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
Dan G. Blair,
Deputy Director.
[FR Doc. E6-40 Filed 1-6-06; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6325-46-P