The Buzz

Telecommuting stalled; Pentagon Hall of Famers; the real cost of competition.

June 15, 2004

Federal agencies have made im-provements in implementing telecommuting plans, but they are far below the goals laid out four years ago by Congress, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Many of the Pentagon's halls and corridors are filled with exhibits honoring military leaders. Army Gen. Colin Powell's war ribbons and a replica of Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur's famed pipe are displayed. Now, Defense Department civilians are being honored with a display in the largest federal building. "Public service is a high calling, but one that can easily get drowned out in the cacophony of competing societal values," said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in an April speech honoring distinguished senior federal executives. "For while we certainly esteem service, we are also a society that prizes individual glory and achievement. We hoist our sports athletes up on pedestals and know them by their first names-Tiger, Lance, A-Rod. Some of us know more about the lives and habits of Hollywood celebrities than our own families. In late May, the Office of Management and Budget finally got what it had been seeking for months: some hard data on the costs and savings of its competitive sourcing initiative, which is aimed at letting contractors vie for thousands of federal jobs.

Telecommuting Emergency

While the number of telecommuting employees grew from 90,010 in 2002 to 102,921 in 2003, that figure is less than 4 percent of the federal workforce, according to OPM's recently released "2003 Telework Report." Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who pushed the telework legislation through Congress, had pressed for 75 percent of the federal workforce to be telecommuting at least part time by 2003.

"There's still a hesitancy in managers to accept it," says Dan Scand-ling, spokesman for Wolf. "Change is difficult to accept sometimes."

To promote more widespread use of teleworking, OPM is emphasizing the importance of having a network of telecommuters in place in the event of an emergency. Abby Block, OPM's deputy associate director for employee and family support policy, says that while some managers may be reluctant to allow employees to telecommute, the "emergency preparedness line of reasoning is one they understand and will move things along."

The report indicated that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and weather disasters like Hurricane Isabel, agencies began to view telework as vital to the continuity of operations.

"You can't wake up the day of the crisis and say, 'Gee, it would really be nice if 500 people could work at home and continue our mission,'" Block says. "You have to have planned and have people that are already accustomed to doing this."

Civilian Hall of Fame

"The term 'heroic bureaucrat' is not one you read in a newspaper or hear from pundits on television," said Raymond DuBois, the Pentagon's director of administration and management, at a May ceremony opening the permanent exhibit. DuBois recommended the creation of the exhibit as a way to honor David O. "Doc" Cooke, his civilian predecessor who served five decades as the "Mayor of the Pentagon" before his death in 2002. The exhibit was assembled by military and Defense historians over the past year.

It consists of a series of glass panels containing photographs, artifacts and quotations that trace more than 200 years of civil service achievements. Defense civilians are credited with designing the Navy's first ships, running munitions arsenals and helping defend Washington from Confederate troops during the Civil War.

The Other Heroes

"When we are called on to serve, when we face tragedy, we have ever risen to meet the challenge before us," Ridge continued. "For us, the attacks of Sept. 11 were such a moment in our lives and the life of our nation. A moment when all of us stopped, took stock of our lives, our choices, a moment when we were reminded of the inspiring greatness of individuals who choose to serve."

The 70 honorees were awarded the rank of Presidential Distinguished Executive and Distinguished Senior Professional during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington. The Senior Executives Association estimated that the executives had saved the federal government more than $187 billion through innovation and improved management.

ON THE RECORD: Maureen Baginski

...head of the FBI's new Office of Intelligence, spoke with National Journal's Siobhan Gorman recently about her efforts to boost the bureau's intelligence capacity.

On her decision to take the FBI job: I was leaving the National Security Agency. I thought I was leaving government service. I had spent 25 years and had a great experience, but there wasn't any more that I thought I could accomplish there. So I was pursuing three avenues: industry; going back to teach, which is my first love; or joining another government agency, but not in intelligence. [FBI] Director [Robert] Mueller came to the NSA, and he got a briefing from one of my deputies. He later called NSA Director [Lt. Gen.] Michael Hayden and said, "I need some advice on how to hire someone to head the Office of Intelligence. Can you send over this guy who briefed me?" Gen. Hayden said, "I can send him over, and I'll send her, too, because you might want to talk to her. She's the Vision Lady behind what he briefed you on."

On the biggest changes in coming to the FBI: One of the big changes is I'm talking to you. Also, my DNA is coded not to have electronic communication devices at work. I drive people crazy because I'm still not in the habit of remembering the cell phone. But I think the biggest change is that for the first time, I'm co-located with my customer. Intelligence has to benefit operations inside and operations outside of the FBI. You begin to see intelligence through the eyes of the consumer-the FBI agent responsible for disrupting terrorist activities.

On developing an intelligence-gathering model: The intelligence process is not rocket science. I don't mean to belittle it. It is just a straight production model. I have found a very strong intelligence capability here. Each of the divisions had a great one, and each of the 56 field offices had a great one. My job is to build an enterprisewide one. It wasn't that we didn't have it; it was that we had too many varieties. This organization does intelligence very well. It has some work to do on sharing it.

On barriers to integrating intelligence at the FBI: Everyone is busy running flat-out. I think that's one. Another is the language barrier and actually understanding what I'm talking about. I can drive down to the CIA and speak in the same language, and there would be instant recognition. And some of it is just that I am new to an organization that is very large and has very set ways of doing things and has a lot of processes that I need to learn and understand. But the people have been amazing.

Dollars and Jobs

But if OMB officials thought the numbers would put an end to the debate over the controversial initiative, they were wrong.

OMB projected that public-private competitions completed at 26 major federal agencies in fiscal 2003 would yield $1.1 billion in net savings over the next three to five years. Federal labor unions were quick to say that figure was based on low-balling the costs of the initiative. In guidelines issued in February for reporting competitive sourcing costs and savings, OMB instructed agencies to include only expenses directly attributable to running competitions, such as retaining consultants or hiring new staff members.

But agencies typically rely heavily on existing employees to run competitions. For example, the Forest Service spent an estimated $23.6 million on competitive sourcing in fiscal 2002 and 2003, according to a report by staffers on a House appropriations subcommittee. But most of the $11.7 million the Forest Service "spent on salaries and benefits associated with studies will not be reported because most was incurred during normal working hours," the report noted.