| Comment Number: | OL-10500488 |
| Received: | 2/17/2005 12:27:52 PM |
| 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:
Below are my comments. Subpart H--Regarding Attorney Fees: DoD proposes to modified the current standard for recovering attorney fees and says that under the current standard, the Department may be required to pay attorney fees if the Department's action was clearly without merit and based on facts that were not known to management when the action was taken. This is an unreasonable standard that can deter the Department from taking action in appropriate cases and has a chilling effect on the Department's ability to carry out its mission. This could have the effect of burdening employees with attorney fees necessary to effectively defend themselves against capricious acts by the Agency, which might not be based on just cause. Employees should not be held responsible for any chilling effects on DoD’s ability to carry out its mission due to inept investigations performed by Agency representative’s. The proposed rules say that Congress recognized DoD's need for enhanced flexibilities to ensure mission accomplishment when it passed the National Defense Authorization Act providing for the creation of the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). But they do not say that DoD used deceit to scare Congress into believing that the current personnel system that has worked well through many wars dating back to WWII. Nor do they say how the previous personnel system was broke, or causal to a break down in our national security, thereby requiring a massive reconstruction. In its stated purpose of the NSPS, DoD repeats the fact that “Congress authorized the Secretary of Defense and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to establish a labor-management relations system and points to 5 U.S.C. 9902(m). However, again DoD fails to identify that Congress also said and the law assures the participation of, employee representatives in the development and implementation of the labor management relations system by requiring the Secretary of Defense and the Director of OPM to afford employee representatives and management the opportunity to have meaningful discussions concerning the development of the new system; this did not happen.