The White House is set to propose overhauling the federal
civil service to adopt major features of new personnel
systems at the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
In a draft letter addressed to House and Senate leaders,
the Office of Personnel Management outlined essential
provisions of the “civil service modernization act of 2005.”
The proposal would increase OPM’s stewardship and oversight
responsibilities transforming it from a “regulator of
personnel processes to the strategic manager” of federal
human capital, one charged with coordinating individual
agency missions with the civil service system as a whole,
according to the letter.
It said OPM would also gain new appointing authorities –
currently available only through separate legislation or
executive order.
The legislation would establish the DHS and NSPS pay and
classification architecture government-wide, and allow OPM
to establish a core strategic compensation system defining
occupational groups such as “law enforcement or science and
engineering,” including pay bands within those groups, the
letter said.
It also proposes giving agencies additional pay-setting
flexibilities for special skills, difficult assignments,
extended deployments, and local recruiting and retention
problems.
