House passes SES diversity legislation

The House passed legislation on Tuesday requiring federal agencies to formalize plans to improve the diversity of their top career ranks and establishing an office within the Office of Personnel Management to administer programs for the Senior Executive Service and to collect data about agency executives.

"We believe that our concerns were heard on the Hill, and believe that the bill is a good one which will meet the objectives of the sponsors and serve the career executive service well," said Carol Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association.

SEA had pressed House Oversight and Government Reform Federal Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., to change language in the original legislation requiring agencies to create three-person panels composed of at least one woman and one racial or ethnic minority to vet SES nominees.

The National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives opposed the change, telling SEA general counsel William Bransford in a March letter that "We believe the key difference in our position to the changes being proposed by the SEA revolves around the question of who the 'gatekeepers' will be in the career SES selection process. . . . It is time to turn over a new leaf and dramatically improve the SES selection process."

William Brown Sr., president of the African American Federal Executive Association, also praised the original proposal at a joint House and Senate hearing on the legislation in April.

The bill that passed by a voice vote on Tuesday replaced that requirement with language encouraging agencies to include women, minorities and people with disabilities on executive resource boards and qualifications review boards. Within a year of the legislation's enactment, the bill requires agency heads to implement regulations to increase the diversity of those boards, which help govern the SES appointments process, and to report their progress to the relevant House and Senate committees.

The legislation directs agency heads to cooperate with the new Senior Executive Service Resource Office at OPM and with the agency's director to provide information about the diversity of the SES. That office would replace a similar organization that OPM dissolved during a reorganization in 2003. Many of the advocacy groups that have supported the diversity bill, including NAHFE, have called for agency leaders to be held more directly accountable for the makeup of their SES ranks.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, has introduced a similar bill in the Senate, and Janet Kopenhaver, the Washington representative for Federally Employed Women, said the advocacy group would be pushing hard for action on the legislation.

"We have an active grass-roots network and will be encouraging our thousands of members to send letters to their senators asking them to support and co-sponsor this bill," Kopenhaver said.