OPM Repeats Pitch for Government-Wide Reforms

The Office of Personnel Management has repeated the administration’s call for a government-wide civil service reform modeled along the lines of new authorities at the Homeland Security and Defense departments, although specific legislation to do so has not been generated to date either by the White House or by anyone in Congress. In a statement to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, OPM associate director Marta Brito Perez said that while agencies have made progress in carrying out the flexibilities they have been granted under various laws in recent years, “we believe the future of flexibility should focus on system-wide change, rather than individual interventions, in order for agencies to be managed strategically . . . We cannot fully institutionalize strategic human capital planning without a system of human resources management that provides the flexibility to allow such planning to be fully effective.” She said the general schedule “imposes limits on the use and value of these flexibilities” because its structure is based on longevity, not performance.