The ongoing House-Senate conference on the fiscal 2004 Defense Department
authorization bill (HR-1588) will need to address numerous federal personnel issues
beyond the disputes over how much new authority over civilian personnel policies to give
to the Pentagon. For example, while the House would limit contracting-out of DoD
civilian jobs in several ways, the Senate would loosen the rules slightly by exempting
certain firefighting positions from the general prohibition on contracting-out of those jobs
at DoD and encouraging a form of contracting-out by creating public-private partnerships
in certain positions. The two chambers also have opposite approaches on the DoD
acquisition workforce; while the House would require that DoD acquisition positions be
reduced by 25 percent over five years, a cut of about 5,300 civilian positions a year, the
Senate would give DoD more flexibility in establishing requirements for acquisition
positions and impose a three-year moratorium on cuts in such positions.
