| Comment Number: | OL-10509823 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 6:44:11 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:
Subpart H-Appeals- Section 9901.807(k)(8)-(10). The proposed processing of RFRs by the Department appears to be cumbersome at best, and unnecessary at worst. Moreover, the absence of any detail regarding the “DoD implementing issuances,” which are not part of the proposed regulations, raises doubts as to the full scope of the RFR proposal and makes any detailed comment on the appeals portion of the regulations difficult, if not impossible, to make. The Department should be particularly concerned that it has created a review system for AJ initial decisions that could consume well over 6 months after many decisions are issued. Based on the proposed regulations, it appears that: -a party has up to 30 days to decide whether to file a request for review (RFR) of an AJ initial decision; -if the Department decides to reconsider the AJ initial decision, the other party then has 15 days to respond; -the Department then has ??? days to act on the request; -after the Department acts, even in the case of nonprecedential decisions that don’t involve a remand, modification or reversal, a party has another 30 days to file a PFR with the full MSPB; -the other party then has 30 days to respond to the PFR; and -MSPB then has 90 days to act on the PFR. Add the time (??? above) it takes the Department to act, to the maximum 195-day period detailed above, and you have a procedure that is not an improvement. It may even be a step backward.