[Senate Report 110-79]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
110th Congress Report
SENATE
1st Session 110-79
_______________________________________________________________________
Calendar No. 196
TO EXTEND THE DATE ON WHICH THE NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM WILL
FIRST APPLY TO CERTAIN DEFENSE LABORATORIES
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
to accompany
S. 457
TO EXTEND THE DATE ON WHICH THE NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM WILL
FIRST APPLY TO CERTAIN DEFENSE LABORATORIES
June 11, 2007.--Ordered to be printed
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TED STEVENS, Alaska
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
BARACK OBAMA, Illinois PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri JOHN WARNER, Virginia
JON TESTER, Montana JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Lawrence B. Novey, Senior Counsel
Jennifer L. Tyree, Counsel, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government
Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia
Brandon L. Milhorn, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Amanda Wood, Minority Counsel
Theresa Prych, Minority Professional Staff Member, Subcommittee on
Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the
District of Columbia
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
Calendar No. 196
110th Congress Report
SENATE
1st Session 110-79
======================================================================
TO EXTEND THE DATE ON WHICH THE NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM WILL
FIRST APPLY TO CERTAIN DEFENSE LABORATORIES
_______
June 11, 2007.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Lieberman, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 457]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 457) to extend the
date on which the National Security Personnel System will first
apply to certain defense laboratories, having considered the
same reports favorably thereon without amendment and recommends
that the bill do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................3
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis......................................3
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................3
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................3
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............4
I. Purpose and Summary
The purpose of S. 457 is to extend from October 1, 2008, to
October 1, 2011, the earliest date on which the National
Security Personnel System (NSPS) may become applicable with
respect to certain Department of Defense (DOD) laboratories. On
and after that date, if S. 457 is enacted, existing statute
would subject the laboratories to the NSPS only to the extent
that the Secretary determines that the flexibilities provided
by the NSPS are greater than the flexibilities provided to the
laboratories under other authorities.
II. Background and Need for the Legislation
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal
Year 2004 established the NSPS,\1\ which is a new personnel
management system under which the DOD was granted substantial
authorities for managing its civilian workforce. However, that
legislation also expressed a recognition of the work that the
Defense laboratories had invested into developing alternative
personnel systems under separate statutory authority, by
excluding the laboratories from being covered by NSPS at least
until that new system is implemented and evaluated.
Specifically, the 2003 statute stated that the Defense
laboratories would continue being governed by their separate
statutory authorities before October 1, 2008, and on and after
that date would come under the NSPS only to the extent that the
Secretary of Defense ``determines that the flexibilities
provided by the National Security Personnel System are greater
than the flexibilities provided'' to the laboratories.\2\
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\1\ Title XI of Public Law 108-136 (Nov. 24, 2003), adding 5 U.S.C.
Sec. Sec. 9901 et seq.
\2\ 5 U.S.C. Sec. 9902(c).
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However, the Department of Defense has implemented NSPS
more slowly than was originally planned.\3\ The Department
converted the first group of employees, approximately 11,000,
into NSPS in April 2006, and those employees received their
first pay adjustment in January 2007. A second group, of
approximately 66,000 employees, referred to as Spiral 1.2, were
converted to the NSPS performance management system between
October 2006 and February 2007. Further slowing the
Department's implementation is a lawsuit filed by federal
employee unions against provisions of the final NSPS
regulations.\4\ As a result of the lawsuit, the Department has
not converted any employees in bargaining units to the new
system, further delaying Department-wide implementation of
NSPS.
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\3\ The Department's original plan for implementation was described
in testimony delivered on March 15, 2005, by the Honorable Charles
Abell, Principle Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, testified before
the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal
Workforce and the District of Columbia of the Senate Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Under the proposed plan
that he described, the first Spiral of NSPS, including up to 300,000
employees, would be implemented as early as July 2005, and the NSPS
would be fully implemented by 2008.
\4\ The most recent decision in this litigation was AFGE v. Gates,
No. 06-5113 (D.C. Cir., May 18, 2007).
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Furthermore, even after this partial implementation of the
NSPS, an additional number of years will be needed to assess
the program. In analogous situations, Congress has established
through the demonstration project authority of title 5, United
States Code, a five-year time period to test and evaluate new
personnel practices.\5\ GAO also has reported that major change
management takes between five and seven years.\6\ Evaluations
of Defense Department demonstration projects conducted by the
Office of Personnel Management, including the original Navy
project at China Lake, have found that such projects require
more than five years before employee approval has reached a 66
percent threshold.\7\
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\5\ 5 U.S.C. Sec. 4703.
\6\ GAO-03-669, Results-Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to
Assist Mergers and Organizational Transformations.
\7\ U.S. Office of Personnel Management, ``Summative evaluation
2002-DoD S&T Reinvention Laboratory Demonstration Program,'' 2002.
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Accordingly, S. 457 would provide the Secretary of Defense
with the necessary years of data on NSPS to make a thorough and
informed comparison of the flexibilities in NSPS and the
laboratories personnel authority. Under the bill, the earliest
date on which the NSPS might be made applicable to the Defense
laboratories is extended from the current statutory date of
October 1, 2008 to October 1, 2011. Even then, the laboratories
may be made subject to NSPS on and after that date only to the
extent that the personnel flexibilities provided under the NSPS
are greater than the personnel flexibilities provided to the
laboratories under their existing statutory authorities. In
this way, the Committee seeks to ensure the Department has a
complete understanding of NSPS before evaluating and comparing
it to the personnel systems in place at its laboratories.
III. Legislative History
On January 31, 2007, S. 457 was introduced by Senator
Voinovich. Senators Bayh, Bingaman, Brown, Clinton, Domenici,
Kennedy, Lieberman, Lott, Reed, and Sessions are cosponsors of
S. 457. The legislation was referred to the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
On February 15, 2007, by voice vote, the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ordered S. 457
reported favorably without amendment.
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis
Section 1. Extension of date of application of National Security
Personnel System to Defense Laboratories
This section amends section 9902 of title 5, United States
Code by replacing ``October 1, 2008'' with ``October 1, 2011.''
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact
Pursuant to the requirement of paragraph 11(b)(1) of rule
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate the Committee has
considered the regulatory impact of this bill. CBO states that
there are no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as
defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and no costs on
State, local, or tribal governments. The legislation contains
no other regulatory impact.
VI. Estimated Cost of Legislation
S. 457--A bill to extend the date on which the National Security
Personnel System will first apply to certain defense
laboratories
S. 457 would delay the implementation of the National
Security Personnel System (NSPS) at certain defense
laboratories until October 1, 2011. Under current law, the
employees at those laboratories may not be brought into the
NSPS before October 1, 2008.
The NSPS was authorized as part of the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (Public Law 108-136),
and the new system is currently in the process of being
implemented by the Department of Defense (DoD). In general,
NSPS provides greater flexibility in the award of civilian pay
raises and bonuses than the General Schedule. The original
authority for the NSPS prohibits implementation of the new
personnel system at certain defense laboratories until October
1, 2008, in part because those laboratories already possess
flexible hiring and compensation systems. The original delay in
implementing the NSPS at those organizations was meant to allow
time to study the flexibilities offered under the NSPS as
compared to their current personnel systems. Based on
information from DoD, those laboratories employ about 38,000
civilians.
Because the NSPS is supposed to be implemented in a manner
that would not affect the total payroll of the compensation
system it is designed to replace, CBO expects that enacting S.
457 would have no significant budgetary effect.
S. 457 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal
governments.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matt Schmit.
This estimate was approved by Peter H. Fontaine, Deputy
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, As Reported
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the following changes in existing
law made by the bill, as reported, are shown as follows:
(existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black
brackets, new matter is printed in italic, existing law in
which no change is proposed is shown in roman):
UNITED STATES CODE
TITLE 5. GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION AND EMPLOYEES
Subpart I--Miscellaneous
CHAPTER 99. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM
SEC. 9902. ESTABLISHMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
* * * * * * *
(c) Personnel Management at Defense Laboratories.--(1) The
National Security Personnel System shall not apply with respect
to a laboratory under paragraph (2) before [October 1, 2008]
October 1, 2011, and shall apply on or after [October 1, 2008]
October 1, 2011, only to the extent that the Secretary
determines that the flexibilities provided by the National
Security Personnel System are greater than the flexibilities
provided to those laboratories pursuant to section 342 of the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995 (Public
Law 103-337; 108 Stat. 2721) and section 1101 of the Strom
Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
1999 (5 U.S.C. 3104 note), respectively.
* * * * * * *