Focus on NSPS Shifts to Authorization Bill

The focus on the future of DoD’s national security personnel system has shifted to a conference on a defense authorization bill (HR-1585), following a decision by House-Senate conferees to drop language from a separate defense appropriations bill (HR-3222) that would have barred spending on the program. That action repeated a pattern from last year, when the House similarly voted to defund NSPS but the move didn’t survive the conference with the Senate. The Pentagon opposed the move, noting that the language as written also could have interfered with alternative personnel systems at DoD that have been operating for many years, including those at research laboratories.