Madam Speaker, I'm pleased to join my colleagues Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) in offering this important bipartisan amendment today.
Our federal workforce is comprised of hard-working public servants who deserve respect on the job and fairness in matters of personnel. Over the past several years, it has become increasingly clear that the Defense Department's alternative human resources regime known as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) provides neither, and therefore should not be supported in this legislation.
The NSPS was originally authorized in the FY 2004 Defense Authorization bill at the request of the political leadership in the Pentagon with the understanding that the new authority would be exercised consistent with congressional intent and in consultation with the legitimate representatives of the nation's 700,000 DoD workforce. For all intents and purposes, that hasn't happened. The Pentagon has, for example, ignored Congress' requirement that an independent entity arbitrate certain disputes between management and labor. And DoD has brushed aside provisions mandating the use of a Merit Systems Protection Board with independent judgment.
As a consequence, the NSPS has been mired in lawsuits, and this House has now acted twice to curtail the program: first, by passing an essentially identical limitation amendment by voice vote during consideration of last year's Defense appropriations bill; and second, by effectively eliminating authority for the NSPS in this year's Defense authorization legislation. If that weren't enough, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reported that it couldn't even figure out how much money the Defense Department was actually spending on the NSPS because "DoD has not established an effective oversight mechanism to ensure that all these costs are fully captured."
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues' support for this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.