Congress, employees still await details of Defense personnel system

Senators, union representatives and outside experts pressed Defense Department officials during a hearing Tuesday for more details on the controversial new National Security Personnel System.

Defense personnel officials said details will emerge during the upcoming meet and confer period, during which union officials will share their concerns with agency negotiators. The concerns were raised during a hearing of the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia.

In 2003, lawmakers gave the Pentagon permission to dramatically overhaul its personnel system to respond to national security threats. Early this year, defense officials released preliminary regulations indicating the agency wants to scrap the General Schedule system, implement performance pay, reduce union bargaining powers and streamline the employee appeals process.

A coalition of Defense unions has filed suit to stop the new system, claiming personnel officials ignored a congressional mandate to include union representatives in the development of NSPS.

"There are many details that have not been defined," said David M. Walker, comptroller general at the Government Accountability Office. "Details are important."

Specifically, Walker said he was interested in more information on performance management, compensation and reductions in force.

Union and Defense officials are poised to enter a meet and confer period to explore reaction to the proposed regulations. Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, said that many questions will be answered during that period.

"This is where the details that so many long for will be revealed," Abell said. "It would be unnatural if they were not concerned or anxious; we will address those concerns."

Subcommittee Chairman George Voinovich, R-Ohio, sought more details on funding that will be allocated to training managers and supervisors in how to use the new performance pay system. A number of experts have told Congress that the success of NSPS rests on the training that is provided for the transition. Abell said, however, that training for NSPS has not been isolated as a separate line item in the fiscal 2006 budget request.

"It is difficult to look at the budget and see the training in there," Abell said.

"I would like to see in writing what you have in mind," he told Abell.

An array of Democratic senators and union representatives also decried the lack of details on the new system.

"I agree that the devil is in the details," said Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. "NSPS lacks details."