5 U.S.C. § 5401
Section 5401 · Purpose
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Veit v. Heckler (1984)
Most recently applied in Griffith v. Federal Labor Relations Authority (March 1988)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The purpose of this chapter is to promote, through the creation of a Human Capital Performance Fund, greater performance in the Federal Government. Monies from the Fund will be used to reward agencies’ highest performing and most valuable employees. This Fund will offer Federal managers a new tool to recognize employee performance that is critical to the achievement of agency missions.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
A prior section 5401, added Pub. L. 95–454, title V, §501, Oct. 13, 1978, 92 Stat. 1180; amended Pub. L. 97–346, §2, Oct. 15, 1982, 96 Stat. 1647; Pub. L. 98–615, title II, §201(a), Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3208; Pub. L. 102–378, §2(37), Oct. 2, 1992, 106 Stat. 1351, stated purpose of chapter to provide a performance management and recognition system, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 103–89, §3(a)(1), (c), Sept. 30, 1993, 107 Stat. 981, 983, eff. Nov. 1, 1993.