Congress weighs program to groom Defense civilian leaders

As the Defense Department gears up to hire thousands of new workers -- including 20,000 contracting specialists -- Congress is considering a program to help the Pentagon recruit and train thousands of future civilian leaders.The program -- called the Department of Defense Civilian Leadership Program -- would select candidates from inside the department as well as the private sector for special training and assignments designed to help the government develop a "new generation" of civilian talent. Under the proposal, included in the 2010 Defense Authorization bill (S. 1390), the Pentagon could select up to 5,000 people each year for the program. According to a Senate Armed Services Committee report on the authorization bill, the program is aimed in part at helping Defense add thousands of new acquisition professionals. In April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the department would convert 11,000 contractors to federal positions and hire an additional 9,000 employees to beef up its acquisition workforce. The proposal has met with some skepticism -- expressed at a July House hearing -- about the logistical challenges of hiring so many new acquisition professionals so quickly. "Acquisition experts have informed the committee that the department's needs extend beyond contracting officials to systems engineers, development planners, software engineers, cost estimators, developmental testers and other highly skilled professionals," the committee's report stated. "They have emphasized that the quality of the new employees is at least as important as the quantity." The report said the program will be a tool for recruiting "individuals with academic merit, work experience and demonstrated leadership skills necessary to build the most effective acquisition workforce." The program is not included in the House-passed version of the authorization bill. The Senate approved its version in July, and now the measure awaits a conference committee to reconcile the two versions.Applicants for the program would be chosen by the Defense secretary based on "academic merit, work experience and demonstrated leadership skills." They would receive special training on the job at entry- and mid-level positions. As their careers progressed, participants who demonstrated "outstanding performance" would be given priority for management and technical positions.Steven Schooner, a professor at The George Washington University Law School and co-director of the school's Government Procurement Law Program, endorsed the concept of the program. "I take it as a good sign that the Senate is not satisfied by the happy talk coming out of the Defense Department about what they're going to do to fix the acquisition workforce," He said. But Schooner expressed concern that the program might not receive enough attention from Defense if implemented.