UNDOING PROGRESSIVISM:

Pentagon To Retool Personnel System: Raises to Be Tied To Performance (Christopher Lee and Stephen Barr, February 10, 2005, Washington Post)

The Defense Department's new personnel rules will jettison parts of a civil service system that for decades have meant steady pay increases for civilian workers and several layers of protection against arbitrary firings or discipline, according to a Pentagon briefing for Congress yesterday.

Under the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), which Defense officials will discuss at a news briefing today, pay raises, now driven largely by longevity, instead will be tied to annual performance evaluations that take into account an employee's conduct and professional demeanor.

The new system would toss out the 15-grade General Schedule pay system and replace it with one made up of "pay bands," offering fewer, larger salary ranges tied to jobs more broadly grouped by occupation and employee skill level, according to a 12-page summary given to House and Senate staffers yesterday.

The document indicates that the Pentagon's new personnel system will be similar to, but not a carbon copy of, the new work rules announced for the Department of Homeland Security last month. The Defense plan, to be phased in over four years, will affect far more workers -- about 750,000, compared with 110,000 at DHS.

Bush administration officials have said both systems should serve as templates for government-wide changes in civil service rules, although several lawmakers have cautioned against moving too quickly. [...]

Congress paved the way for the new system in 2003 when it gave the Pentagon the authority to rewrite the personnel rules. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had argued that the current system was outdated, rewarded poor performers as well as strong ones and greatly limited the department's ability to fight global terrorism. Congress gave the Department of Homeland Security similar authority a year earlier, after President Bush insisted that he needed freedom from civil service rules to consolidate 22 agencies into an effective new department.

Civil Service reformation will be one of George Bush's most significant legacies, but it's such a prosaic subject few pundits, politicians, or press even noticed he was effecting it until just recently.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 10, 2005 09:08 AM