Comment Number: OL-10511775
Received: 3/16/2005 5:17:08 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:

I have grave concerns regarding the DoD's proposed changes under NSPS. Their reluctance to provide meaningful information about specific points during the formative stages, in my opinion, is a prelude to change that is not in the best interest of the Federal Employee and, ultimately, the people of the United States. Otherwise, there would have been meaningful dialogue between groups representing the employees and the DoD framers of the NSPS plan. Despite well-publicized DoD assertions of having included these employee groups, those representatives in attendance testify they were not actively involved in the process nor given specifics to discuss. No doubt there are many issues within the Federal Government's employee system, but those things can be addressed within the existing framework. Instead, the administration and its DoD appointees have seized an opportunity to re-invent the personnel system under the guise of national security. It is unfortunate that our Congress reacted to acts of overt terrorism in such widespread knee-jerk fashion. The terrible events of 9/11 presented opportunists with an unprecedented basis on which to perpetrate changes they previously had only dreamed of. With 25 years of faithful service to the war fighter, I have no faith in the rank and file manager's ability to execute the pay for performance plan as envisioned by Congress. It is noteworthy that DoD sought to emulate the changes put for by the Dept. of Homeland Security...a fledgling department with no proven plan and which is currently in a state of near turmoil within its ranks. Through the years, the vast majority of Federal defense workers have stayed the course, faithfully executing their responsibilities. We have seen our earning power eroded, our benefits whittled away, our value questioned, our jobs out-sourced, and through it all we kept the faith. We have played a key role in our constitution's charge to provide for the common defense even when our elected officials have questioned the need for our existence and showed how they under-value of our service. Perhaps it is because we do not retain lobbying firms with which to exercise political influence. We do our jobs quietly and with great pride. I believe NSPS, in the long run, will erode employee morale and the ability to attract qualified talent. Already on the local level I see how hard it is to find experienced workers for the pay that is offered and I do not expect it to become more enticing, especially given the current state of the deficit. Not one of my coworkers has expressed any optimism in regard to DoD doing the right thing for its workers under NSPS. The prevailing concern is that we shall be modeled after the more repressive businesses rather than those held in high regard by their employees. While our present system is far from perfect, overall it has done its job reasonably well when you consider the sheer numbers of people affected. I hate to see a situation in which the baby is thrown out with the bathwater, but I am bracing for just such an event. Would that Congress reconsider the entire affair, but, sadly, there is traditionally great reluctance for leaders to revisit a decision no matter how ill advised. I hope that I am wrong, but as one former OPM director under the Reagan administration put it, I feel we shall be left with the best of the desperate.