FIGHTING THE NEXT WAR

Rumsfeld Urges Overhaul of Pentagon Civil Service: Pay for Performance, Shift of 320,000 Jobs, Other Major Powers Sought in Legislation (Christopher Lee, April 23, 2003, Washington Post)

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wants to implement sweeping changes in the way civilian employees are hired, paid and promoted in the Defense Department.

Pentagon officials recently sent a 205-page bill to Capitol Hill detailing a proposed overhaul of the civil service system that would replace guaranteed annual raises for 470,000 workers with a pay-for-performance plan. It also would shift as many as 320,000 military members out of jobs that could be done by civilians, make it easier for the Defense Department to contract out work to the private sector and allow managers to hire and transfer employees without time-consuming competitions.

Moreover, the proposal would grant the defense secretary the power to implement major personnel changes over the opposition of the Office of Personnel Management and labor unions.

Pentagon officials said the changes are necessary to shape the Defense Department into a modern, responsive bureaucracy capable of efficiently carrying out the government's most important mission, protecting its citizens.

"We are trying to create a system in which people can think in one cohesive unit, and then act," said David S. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, speaking yesterday at a human resources forum hosted by the IBM Endowment for the Business of Government.

"The current civil service system is rigid. It is not agile," Chu said. "We cannot succeed with the current system."

On the other hand (see below), if George W. Bush can break the civil service across the whole of government, it will be a more important achievement than anything else he's yet done. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 23, 2003 1:11 PM