Each year, Reclamation's Technical Service Center (TSC) must do what many other governmental organizations do not: recover operating costs by generating revenue from clients.
 
"We receive very little direct appropriations from Congress," said Acting Director Lowell Pimley.  "The TSC recovers about 95% of its operating costs through fee-for-service agreements with our clients."

Since the formation of the TSC in 1995, the TSC has charged for its services on an as-requested, job-by-job basis through individual service agreements. The TSC operates like a business and uses both a billable labor rate and fee structure to fully recover its operating costs.

This year, the TSC has adjusted its billable rate to cover OPM mandated cost-of-living adjustments for Federal employees and other operational costs. In fiscal year 2008, a skill level 1 (GS 1-10) will cost $74 an hour, a skill level 2 (GS 11-12) will cost $96 an hour, and a skill level 3 (GS-13-15) will cost $116 per hour.

The process by which TSC settles upon the hourly costs for the services provided is similar to that of any business.

The TSC develops a projection of needed funding at the end of each fiscal year.  This projection is based upon TSC’s number of employees, payroll, cost-of-living increases, overtime and business costs including rent, depreciation, security and direct and indirect costs.  The projection must also account for a surplus or deficit from the previous year.