Military to Civilian Conversion Continues

The Defense Department converted some 7,600 military positions to civilian employee or contractor performance during fiscal 2004, the Pentagon has said, and plans to convert another 16,000 in the current fiscal year and a further 6,400 in fiscal 2006. The military-to-civilian conversion program is designed to free up military personnel for positions more directly related to war fighting. While the program does create at least some civilian federal positions, past efforts have had mixed success due to difficulties in getting funding for both the military billet and the civilian position being created; in addition, some of the work is given to contractors, not to civilian federal employees. In addition, the House-passed DoD authorization bill for fiscal 2006 (HR-1815) expressed concern that the Air Force’s plan to convert 1,395 positions next year “is not executable due to the hiring time required for civilian personnel” and allotted $52.3 million for the program, $37 million less than requested.