The concept of expanding “demonstration project”
authority-which in some agencies has allowed a de facto
form of civil service reform without legislation-appears
dead for this session of Congress. The head of the House
civil service subcommittee, Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., has
said she plans to drop the provision from a benefits
improvement bill (HR-1601) when she moves that measure
through her subcommittee.
Both that bill and a Senate counterpart (S-129) originally
had provisions to remove the current 5,000-employee limit
on a demonstration project, which effectively would have
allowed entire agencies to exempt themselves from many
civil service hiring, promotion, job grading and other
practices. Management of some agencies had been hoping
for passage, since getting personnel legislation from
Congress is a difficult task even for the most high-profile
agencies such as Defense and Homeland Security. The
demonstration project authority is a much easier route
and the measure would have made it still easier by removing
some current procedural hurdles.
However, in passing its version, the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee dropped the demonstration project
authority and Davis’s stated intent to follow suit will
foreclose action for at least this year. The main opposition
came from federal unions, which mistrust the employee
evaluation systems that serve as the backbone of the pay
for performance features common in demonstration projects.
The Office of Personnel Management also cooled to the idea
of expanding demonstration project authority, saying at a
recent hearing before Davis’s panel that “while we always
appreciate more flexibility to deal with outmoded personnel
rules,” the demonstration project concept itself is now
somewhat outmoded in light of the DoD and DHS personnel
authorities.
