DoD Gets an Earful on NSPS

The Defense Department says it received more than 56,000 comments during the comment period that recently ended on proposed rules to carry out its national security personnel system, which will feature pay for performance and restrictions on employee appeal rights and union rights. Many of those comments, however, were form letters—or slight variants—that federal unions encouraged their members to send it. DoD is currently analyzing the comments. Meanwhile, at hearings in both the House and Senate in the last week, members of Congress from both parties expressed reservations about the draft rules, raising concerns about the planned restrictions on employee appeal rights and union rights and about the fairness of the pay for performance system.