Letters

In "When Prior Punishments Don't Count," (Management, May), William Rudman correctly notes that the U.S. Court of Appeals decision in Gregory v. USPS may have dropped "a nuclear bomb on agency disciplinary actions" because it prevents the consideration of prior discipline during penalty selection if that discipline is currently the subject of a grievance. The Merit Systems Protection Board could remedy this problem by issuing a regulation stating that agencies may continue to use the challenged discipline as a prior act of misconduct when selecting a penalty. However, should the prior discipline be reduced or overturned following the board's decision on the last action appealed, the case would automatically be reopened and the penalty reconsidered in light of the new information. This regulatory option protects the rights of both sides of the case while simultaneously allowing the final disciplinary action to go forward.

The Supreme Court has agreed to review the court's ruling, and every time the Supreme Court has reviewed an employment law decision of the Federal Circuit, it has reversed it.

William B. Wiley
Dean, California Federal School of Law

Putting Warriors First

As one of the authors of "Outsourcing Pits Mission vs. Money" (Viewpoint, April), I find it incredible that Stan Soloway paints all government IT with the same brush (Letters, July). Defense IT is strikingly different from the rest of government.

The country deserves to have men and women with the warrior mentality guiding the command and control of units on the ground, not a business representative who has never walked a mile in muddy boots. When our soldiers try to order spare parts, obtain guidance about use of force or work to save a life, they must have the confidence that the person on the other end has a contract with the American people to provide for the common defense.

In combat, lives-not data throughputs or total cost of ownership-should decide how much redundancy we build into our systems. Our article was about engaging government IT professionals in the debate over outsourcing. We must all take a deep breath and allow some common sense to filter through. Surely at the end of the day, we can all agree that as patriots, we want the best for our men and women in uniform.

James H. Ward
Information Systems
Engineering Command, Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

Correction

In the July issue, the name of Duke University immunologist Barton Haynes was misspelled in "Down to a Science."