Senator urges go-slow approach to personnel reform

A key Republican senator urged the Bush administration Thursday to wait for results from the new Homeland Security and Defense department personnel systems before spreading the reforms to the rest of the federal government.

In late January, the Office of Management and Budget said it would seek to overhaul personnel rules in all federal agencies. Clay Johnson, OMB deputy director for management, acknowledged that the plan-which was included in the fiscal 2006 budget proposal-will require congressional approval. Federal personnel officials are implementing sweeping reforms at DHS and Defense that will abolish the General Schedule pay system, restrict union bargaining rights and implement stricter disciplinary rules.

"We have a difference of opinion with the administration on whether this should be cascaded out" in the short term, said Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, during a hearing Thursday of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia. Voinovich is chairman of that subcommittee and would have a great deal of influence on the expansion of civil service reform to the rest of the federal government. The hearing focused on the Homeland Security personnel system.

"I'm going to try to stick to my guns," Voinovich said.

During Thursday's hearing, several Homeland Security personnel officials described the new system as critical to national security. Voinovich told them that their experience with the revamped systems would most likely determine if the reforms were spread to other federal agencies. He made it clear that he supports the reforms, and he called on union leaders to help shape the process and support the transition.

Union officials, however, were wary. Several labor leaders are sharply opposed to the DHS personnel reforms as they currently exist.

The personnel systems at DHS and Defense were overhauled because of national security concerns and that rationale cannot be applied elsewhere, said National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley.

"Those considerations do not apply to the rest of the government," Kelley said.

The senior Democrat on the subcommittee, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, also called on the Bush administration to show patience in carrying the reforms to other parts of the federal workforce.

"It is premature and shortsighted," he said, "to open the door to untried and untested regulations."