Comment Number: OL-10508953
Received: 3/15/2005 11:38:47 AM
Subject: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment
Title: National Security Personnel System
CFR Citation: 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901
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Comments:

I am not a legal expert but, I don’t think it requires one to see some of the very concerning wording in the law that contains NSPS. The whole selling point of NSPS was that the Secretary of Defense would be required to coordinate any actions involving Civilian employees with the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. After reading through much of the law I see many places where that is not true. To give any one official sole authority goes against our basic governing system. No one person should have the kind of power proposed by this law. For this reason I object to the enactment of this law in its current wording. The following are some extractions as example to what I am referring to. These are just a few examples there are more. Section 9901.105 of the proposed regulations provides that the Secretary will advise and/or coordinate with OPM in advance, as applicable, regarding the proposed promulgation of certain DoD implementing issuances and certain other actions related to the ongoing ‘‘(c) PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT AT DEFENSE LABORATORIES.— (1) The National Security Personnel System shall not apply with respect to a laboratory under paragraph (2) before October 1, 2008, and shall apply on or after October 1, 2008, only to the extent that the Secretary determines that the flexibilities provided by the National Security Personnel System are greater than the flexibilities provided to those laboratories pursuant to section 342 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995 (Public Law 103–337; 108 Stat. 2721) and section 1101 of the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 (5 U.S.C. 3104 note), respectively. ‘‘§ 9903. Attracting highly qualified experts ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may carry out a program using the authority provided in subsection (b) in order to attract highly qualified experts in needed occupations, as determined by the Secretary. ‘‘(b) AUTHORITY.—Under the program, the Secretary may— ‘‘(1) appoint personnel from outside the civil service and uniformed services (as such terms are defined in section 2101) to positions in the Department of Defense without regard to any provision of this title governing the appointment of employees to positions in the Department of Defense; ‘‘(2) prescribe the rates of basic pay for positions to which employees are appointed under paragraph (1) at rates not in excess of the maximum rate of basic pay authorized for seniorlevel positions under section 5376, as increased by localitybased comparability payments under section 5304, notwithstanding any provision of this title governing the rates of pay or classification of employees in the executive branch; and ‘‘(3) pay any employee appointed under paragraph (1) payments in addition to basic pay within the limits applicable to the employee under subsection (d). ‘‘§ 9904. Special pay and benefits for certain employees outside the United States ‘‘The Secretary may provide to certain civilian employees of the Department of Defense assigned to activities outside the United States as determined by the Secretary to be in support of Department of Defense activities abroad hazardous to life or health or so specialized because of security requirements as to be clearly distinguishable from normal Government employment—