| Comment Number: | OL-10504163 |
| Received: | 3/8/2005 3:22:12 PM |
| Subject: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Title: | National Security Personnel System |
| CFR Citation: | 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901 |
| Attachment: | NSPS.doc Download Adobe Reader |
Comments:
The Department of Defense (DoD) is making a colossal mistake by implementing the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). I admit that on the surface, the new personnel system sounds good. It supposedly rewards hard working defense employees and provides a stick on a carrot approach to attract the best and brightest employees. It also provides an avenue of eliminating sub par employees, which we already have anyway. General Schedule employees can already be rewarded with quality step increases, and they may be fired also. It may be hard to fire an employee, but it is not impossible. Management officials need to fulfill their roles. I would like to compare the NSPS to gun laws, although I am sure that most in Washington are too ignorant to comprehend the comparison. I am not going to attack any one particular political party. As far as I am concerned, there is not a whole lot of difference between the two parties. It does not seem to matter whether it is President Bush, who insists on destroying pay parity, or Bill Clinton, who voted against federal employee pay raises seven out of the eight years he was in office. Here is my analogy of gun laws versus NSPS. We already have numerous gun laws on the books. Oh yes, they do exist. Rather than enforce the existing laws, some politicians, in their infinite wisdom, believe that we actually need more anti-gun laws. Yet, we cannot even enforce the current laws. What kind of problem solving approach is this? I cannot comprehend their rationale. Now we are using this same approach when addressing the current personnel system. Statutes and regulations that govern just about every facet of federal employment already exist. There are ways to reward exceptional workers, such as the Quality Step Increase (QSI). Although, I have only observed one employee during my nineteen and one half year government career, receive a QSI. This event occurred around 1989, while I was serving active duty in the United States Air Force at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. Employees can be fired also. The federal government would rather make new regulations than to enforce the current ones. I really do not believe that most politicians have the mental capacity or ability to enforce current statutes, regulations, and laws. Politicians only know how to make new laws and pass new bills. We all know that cronyism exists in the federal government, but the NSPS is going to cause the practice of cronyism to metastasize. I am extremely proud to have made it through my life and my government career through my knowledge and not by whom I know. I take pride in the work I do, and I am not at work to win the popularity contest. Unfortunately, the NSPS is going to change our personnel system into a popularity contest. Another issue I have deals with our mission as Department of Defense employees and the War on Terror. I feel that Donald Rumsfeld treats DoD employees as if we do not even contribute to the War on Terror or serve any purpose in preserving democracy. Under my first amendment constitutional right, I believe that Donald Rumsfeld is a total waste of human flesh. I served my country both in the USAF and continue to serve my nation as a DoD employee. Not only is Donald Rumsfeld attempting to screw Defense employee, but he wants to screw the veteran too. The United States will not hesitate to turn their back on wartime veterans or disabled veterans, which is all but evident with the NSPS. I feel that it is extremely important to point out that DoD employees play an active and important role in the War on Terror. Yet, President Bush wants to break pay parity and destroy our personnel system. DoD employees without special perks that their military counterparts receive, such as housing allowance and sustenance allowance, both of which are tax free. We do not receive free medical and dental. We do not get to shop at the Commissary or the Base Exchange. The American taxpayer should know that military personnel receive a lot more compensation than what is identified and taxed in their basic pay. I admit that there is a war going on, and we as DoD employees are part of that war as well. However, when I was in the military, there were many days up until Desert Storm that we didn’t work very hard at all. Again, this is something that the American taxpayer should be aware of. We should have multiple pay scales for military personnel, one for those in a war zone and one for those who are not. We should tax both military housing and sustenance allowances. The bottom line is that DoD employees do their job and do it without extra perks. In closing, I remember Bill Gates said that life is not fair, and my second level supervisor has reiterated this position. So please remember Mr. Rumsfeld, when this action comes back to haunt you, sit back and think of these two famous proverbial sayings, “Life is not fair” and “What goes around comes around.”