Government-Wide Reforms Could Stall

The House Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill also imposes a cut in accounts at the Office of Personnel Management that otherwise could be used to carry out government-wide civil service reforms. The administration has yet to formally propose legislation to make such broader reforms, which would extend many of the coming changes at Defense and Homeland Security to all other agencies. Under the draft version, agencies would have discretion in designing their own systems, within general policies set by OPM and subject to OPM approval. The funding restriction, should it make it into law, effectively is a preemptive strike against carrying out such a system by blocking the OPM role. Civil service leaders on Capitol Hill have shown little enthusiasm for a government-wide reform at least until the DoD and DHS systems are firmly in place, and possibly not until they have been operating for some time. Administration officials argue that the time is right for a government-wide reform.