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The Office of Management and Budget will propose revamping personnel rules across federal agencies, as well as creating two commissions to evaluate federal programs, OMB deputy director for management Clay Johnson said Wednesday.

All three proposals require congressional approval, and Johnson said he was optimistic about receiving it. They will be included in the president's fiscal 2006 budget proposal, which OMB will deliver to Congress on Feb. 7.

The new personnel rules will resemble those being developed at the Defense and Homeland Security departments. They likely will include limits on collective bargaining and a new pay system, but Johnson said he did not yet know the specifics.

Federal unions have been strong critics of the new personnel rules and on Wednesday said they planned to file a lawsuit against Homeland Security over them.

The proposed Sunset Commission would review all 1,200 government programs every 10 years. It would vote on whether or not to recommend keeping each program, and then Congress would vote on the program's reauthorization. Without reauthorization, the programs would automatically end.

"It's a way for agencies to have to justify their value," said Johnson.

The Results Commission would examine how agencies work together to implement programs and recommend ways to improve interagency efficiency.

Johnson emphasized the impact of the President's Management Agenda in improving accountability. The goal, he said, is to show that "every program is better this year than the last."

The latest score card, released last week, showed higher scores for eight agencies and four declining scores. Defense, which holds the largest number of job competitions, dropped from the highest score, green, to yellow, the middle rating.

"It's not easy being green," Johnson said, evoking Kermit the Frog. Defense lost points on its competitive sourcing score because it did not follow through with its job competition plans, he said.

Asked why scores at the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, the Small Business Administration and the Office of Personnel Management dropped, Johnson said getting to green hasn't gotten harder, but agencies have to work hard to maintain their top status.

He noted improvements in human capital management, which has the highest scores of any initiative. Federal employees, he said, should be thought of as public servants and not as bureaucrats, he said.

"We need to do a better job," he added, "of providing our employees tools to live up to their full potential."

COMMENTS

• I recently witnessed the most horrendous display of politics of personal destruction and the ugliest face of self-preservation and betrayal I'd ever seen in all my years in civil service. Some of you who are reading this can relate to the following: You put in 12-14 hour days, putting your heart and soul into your job, working at home, working weekends, using your own money for the mission to expedite it's success, putting your job ahead of your own health concerns and that of your family all the while knowing there's no way you can save the Titanic you're "responsible" for saving. And then told you aren't working hard enough at it. Can you concieve how absurd that all is? I oppose NSPS because I witnessed and experienced what amounts to this example and how easy I saw it is for supervisors and leadership to effectively make someone the scapegoat for their failures. NSPS will facilitate this kind of abuse of federal workers, and don't tell me about safeguards and appeals processes. They'll amount to nothing. GovExec.com reader Posted May 29, 2005 4:26 AM
• I cannot believe that as smart as we Americans are, that we are just clacking about how Bush and company will "deep six" civil service, and we are just going to "hide and watch" and do nothing about it! Since we work for the governmant what happened to "government for and by the people?" Where is the Congress in the goat rope of an operation. This reminds me of a situation when the hen hides and watches as the fox eats her baby chicks and does nothing about it! GovExec.com reader Posted February 8, 2005 2:07 PM
• Thank you, Judge Weir! The value of studying history is that it tends to repeat itself unless we learn from our past mistakes. Any form of government (or management system) would work if humans were all of an angelic ilk. Unfortunately, we are all of the same struggling, often broken, human race. That's why we have a multiple party system, why we have several separate branches of government, to some degree why we have a congress and a senate, why we need unions: checks and balances. Greed and power very often corrupt. The trappings of being at the top of the heap frequently blinds one to the reality of those not in the inner circle. Does anyone really believe the current administration is above all that? Christian? Professedly. Well-meaning? Perhaps. But immune from mistakes born of self-interest? Not on your life (or career)! Ken Posted February 7, 2005 10:14 AM