| Comment Number: | OL-10501916 |
| Received: | 2/28/2005 1:16:56 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:
GENERAL COMMENTS Under NSPS, DOD seeks to establish by regulation a more flexible civilian personnel management system that is consistent with its human capital management strategy. DOD says it desires to be a more competitive and progressive employer at a time when the country’s national security requires a highly responsive system of civilian personnel management. This is to be achieved under a TOTAL FORCE concept that, DOD says, is consistent with the following guiding principles: • Put the mission first; • Respect the individual and protect rights guaranteed by law; • Value talent, performance, leadership, and commitment to public service; • Be flexible, understandable, credible, responsive, and executable; • Ensure accountability at all levels; • Balance human resource system interoperability with unique mission requirements; and, • Be competitive and cost effective. Notwithstanding the above, DOD has presented no evidence of any current lack of competitiveness caused by pre-NSPS law or regulation. Given the global war on terrorism, the civilian workforce of DOD is being required to play a more significant role in combat support functions. In addition, DOD has an interest in using its civilian workforce to maintain institutional knowledge, because of frequent rotations involving its military personnel. Over the past decade, however, DOD’s civilian workforce has been subjected to various demoralizing personnel actions, such as downsizing, base closures, and competitive sourcing initiatives. When the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act was under consideration, certain key Members of the Senate discussed various aspects of NSPS. For example, Senator Lieberman made it quite clear that the Secretary may not “. . . alter the statutory rights, duties, and protections established in chapter 71 or to compromise the right of parties to obtain fair and impartial review of decision[s]. The mutual trust required for productive labor-management relations requires a level playing field.” Senator Collins, the primary sponsor on the Senate side, also made several salient points about DOD instituting its new personnel system. “As the new National Security Personnel System . . . is set in place, the Department must keep faith with its civilian employees and provide for third-party appeals, third-party dispute resolution as part of the collective bargaining process and a credible, transparent performance rating system. I will be watching closely . . . to ensure that Federal employees’ rights are not abrogated and that the highly-skilled civilian defense workforce can continue to stand arm-in-arm with their military counterparts to provide for the security of our Nation.” On December 15, 2004, DOD published a new release announcing its intention to commence with its first phase of the new system beginning as early as July 2005. While DOD has targeted 60,000 employees to be affected by its initial implementation of Spiral One, it has not provided any projections regarding the number of military personnel serving around the globe who may be subjected to the secondary impact caused by NSPS. A detailed explanation of NSPS DoD still is not available after sixteen months since Public Law 108-136 was enacted. Workforce Staffing DOD says it envisions a rapid adaptation of its civilian workforce to meet changes in mission requirements. It wants to select the right employee with the right capability to be assigned to the right place. Neither DOD nor OPM have yet identified which aspects of the existing system are inhibiting the effective management of DOD civilian personnel. No evidence has been presented that any pre-NSPS law or regulation has precluded DOD for deploying its staff to adjust to changing mission requirements.