Defense gets green light to hire experts at higher salaries

Under a new policy announced last week, the Defense Department will begin to recruit up to 2,500 "highly qualified experts" and pay them wages greater than other civil servants would receive.

"This policy represents good news that is long overdue," said Defense Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs William Winkerwerder. "DoD will now benefit from the experience, expertise and wisdom of people who have practical experience in the private sector."

The new authority, granted in the fiscal 2004 Defense Authorization Act, is controversial, particularly among members of the Senior Executive Service, who fear that the department could use the 2,500 slots for political purposes. But Defense Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness David Chu has vehemently denied that charge.

"It's so we can hire the nation's scientists to ensure that for the purposes of the future, we have the performance the country needs. It's not about political appointees," he said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing in May 2003.

Chu said that the new authority mirrored one that Congress had already granted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the department's research and development organization. The program will enable the department to more aggressively recruit scientists, engineers and medical personnel who earn wages in the private sector far greater than the civil service pay structure would allow -- up to 50 percent more than many top SES members. Under the provision, each expert could serve for a maximum of six years.

In their announcement, Defense officials indicated their sensitivity to the concerns of civil servants, noting that "this new tool requires special handling by Defense managers." Under the program, Defense may hire only individuals possessing "uncommon, special knowledge or skills in a particular occupational field beyond the usual range or expertise." These experts must be "regarded by others as an authority or practitioner of unusual competence and skill."

The new hiring authority "cannot be used to perform continuing [Defense] functions, to bypass or undermine personnel ceiling or pay limitations, to give former federal employees preferential treatment or to do work performed by regular employees," department officials said.

Still, in testimony before the House Government Reform Committee last year, Senior Executives Association General Counsel Jerry Shaw said that the department had not made a strong case for the policy, that these expert positions could be used to supplant Defense's SES corps, and that it could weaken the SES system across government.