A high-profile commission led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker has issued a report calling for numerous broad-ranging civil service reforms, a followup to a similar report issued more than a decade ago that laid the groundwork for higher salaries for senior federal executives, among other changes. The commission, like numerous other similar bodies in recent years, recommended greater flexibilities in personnel management systems, simplified and accelerated hiring processes, linking employee pay to current market conditions by abolishing the general schedule system and putting a greater emphasis on pay for performance. Other proposals include: reducing the number of political appointees, dividing the Senior Executive Service into separate corps of managers versus professional and technical experts, reducing financial disclosure requirements on employees, and raising salaries of appointees and other high-level employees. The commission is not a formal government body but its views likely will be taken seriously by both the executive branch and Congress, since its members include many leading experts on civil service matters.