DoD’s Reform Plan to Get Serious Look

The Defense Department is expected to unveil soon details of its proposal to create a new personnel system for itself roughly tracking the special authorities granted to the Department of Homeland Security in hiring, performance evaluation, job classification, pay and other areas. While the same sense of urgency that applied to the debate over DHS last year isn’t present, officials say the DoD proposal likely will get a serious and sympathetic hearing in Congress. Despite a decade of downsizing, the Defense Department remains by far the largest executive branch agency, with about 650,000 employees in military-related functions and another 25,000 in civil functions of the Army Corps of Engineers. With its size, budgetary heft and clout on Capitol Hill, DoD long has been a leader in setting trends for federal employment policies-for example, it pioneered the use of buyouts. However, despite years of advocating for personnel reforms like those now being sought, DoD has been left by the wayside as other agencies have gotten separate personnel authorities.