DoD Plans ‘Full Partnership’ With OPM

In its recent decision to slow down its earlier timetable for carrying out a new “national security personnel system” for itself, the Defense Department decided that the policies will be crafted in “full partnership” with the Office of Personnel Management. That change in part answers criticism from employee organizations and some on Capitol Hill that the Pentagon was attempting to craft a civil service plan without significant input from the government’s central personnel agency. Unlike the separate law affecting the Department of Homeland Security that required that any changes be made through joint formal rule-making between DHS and OPM, the DoD authorizing law requires only that DoD “collaborate” with OPM. The calls for greater involvement by OPM came after DoD issued on its own guidance on several parts of its new system, including buyout and early out policies and special authorities for hiring experts and for rehiring annuitants-as well as a draft policy on appeals and labor relations policies that riled federal unions and some members of Congress.