Federal Manager's Daily Report

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DoD would be required to produce a report on the mix of civilian federal employees, uniformed military personnel and contractor employees in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, under a measure that has cleared a House panel.

That review would focus on topics including “the number of contractor personnel supporting each OSD component, including contractor personnel performing “inherently governmental functions,” “closely associated with inherently governmental functions,” “critical functions” as well as the number of staff augmentation contractors supporting each component,” says a report on the measure from the subcommittee on military personnel.

That measure, along with separate bills from other subcommittees, is to be combined and voted on by the full House Armed Services Committee in September.

The measure also would encourage, although not require, the Pentagon to review the personnel mix specifically in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (OUSDP) and consider increasing the portion of its workforce consisting of federal employees.

That office “is essential to maintain this principle of civilian control of the military. However, hiring freezes and attrition in OUSDP have led to a manpower reduction of almost 27 percent over the last 11 years. This has resulted in an inappropriate reliance on contractors and undermined OUSDP’s ability to carry out robust civilian control and oversight of the Armed Forces,” the report said.

The measure also would require DoD to report on diversity and inclusiveness efforts for its civilian employees, require a plan to carry out recommendations of a GAO report on addressing sexual harassment and assault of DoD civilian employees, and bar changes in the size of function of the Naval Audit service pending results of an ongoing GAO review.

Like the counterpart measure already approved by the full Senate Armed Services Committee, the House measure would continue several long-standing special pay authorities for federal employees working in areas of active military operations.

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