Like other federal agencies, the Department of Energy may continue to reimburse contractors for paid leave related to COVID-19 through March 31, under the combination omnibus budget bill and coronavirus relief package signed into law last week.
The paid-leave reimbursement became law this summer in section 3610 of the CARES act, an early COVID-19 stimulus that created many of the programs businesses big and small have relied on to blunt the economic effects of the pandemic and the U.S. response to it. Congress has extended this popular contractor-relief provision multiple times this year.
CARES 3610 is intended to keep the federal government’s contractor brain trust together, even if contractors cannot access federal worksites because of COVID-19 precautions. Contractors who are supposed to work in confined, classified areas have become the archetypal example of people who might need to be paid even if they are stuck at home during the pandemic response.
As under previous DOE guidance, the agency’s latest CARES 3610 guidance restricts reimbursements to the equivalent of 40 hours a week and requires that contractors represent that they aren’t double dipping by claiming any other sort of federal COVID reimbursement.
In the 2020 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, DOE Office of Environmental Management had reimbursed $426 million in paid leave under CARES 3610. In the same period, DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration paid out $145 million in CARES 3610 claims. That’s according to agency spokespersons.
