| Comment Number: | EM-022866 |
| Received: | 3/17/2005 1:00:14 AM |
| Subject: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Title: | National Security Personnel System |
| CFR Citation: | 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
March 17, 2005 DoD NSPS Comments , DoD NSPS Comments: For DoD employees, NSPS is devastating. NSPS seeks to ?create an environment in which the total force, uniformed personnel and civilians, thinks and operates as one cohesive unit? and ?DoD civilians complement and support the military around the world in every time zone, every day.? It sounds great in theory to take our military of about 1.4 million and increase the ?cohesive unit? by 50% with the addition of 700,000 DoD civilians, for a total force exceeding an impressive 2.1 million personnel. But this can?t work in reality. The average military member is 26 years old, and agreed to deployment when they joined the military. The average DoD civilian is 46 years old, was not hired as a deployable asset, but will be forced to become deployable under NSPS. Why not offer an enlistment bonus to new soldiers who get their mom or dad to enlist with them, instead of forcing existing DoD civilians to deploy? What will happen to the DoD civilian who cannot or will not deploy? Is this one of the Mandatory Removal Offenses that will be announced in future ?implementing issuances?, because non-deployment has ?direct and substantial adverse impact on the Department's national security mission?? Or is this an ?involuntary re-assignment? to a different job and/or ?involuntary movement to a lower pay band?? It is not reasonable to change the rules mid-game, and then try to justify it as a matter of ?National Security?. If deployment of civilians is truly and suddenly so critical, how have we managed to live without them for so long? Sincerely,