The rhetoric in the Defense and Homeland Security regulations highlight the arguments by the Bush administration for shaking up the civil service in the post-9/11 world.
In short, the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, in laying out their plans for new pay and personnel systems, have decided that the status quo is not an option for employees or the unions that represent about half of their workforces.
 
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Here are some excerpts from the proposed Defense regulation and the final Homeland Security regulation -- both issued this month and both offering justifications for why the decades-old General Schedule is no longer suitable.
From the Homeland Security regulation, published Feb. 1:
"Since September 11, 2001, this Nation has come together with a unity of purpose that has not been seen or felt since the attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941. . . .
"The mission of the Department demands that employees and supervisors work together as never before. Managers, supervisors, and employees of the department must be unified in both purpose and effort if they are to accomplish that mission. And perhaps the most important way to bring about that unity is through an integrated HR [human resources] system for the Department -- a system that assures maximum flexibility and accountability."
From the Pentagon's proposed regulation for the National Security Personnel System, published yesterday:
"NSPS is a key pillar in the Department of Defense's transformation -- a new way to manage its civilian workforce. NSPS is essential to the department's efforts to create an environment in which the total force, uniformed personnel and civilians, thinks and operates as one cohesive unit. . . . Civilians must be an integrated, flexible and responsive part of the team. . . .
"The attacks of September 11 made it clear that flexibility is not a policy preference. It is nothing less than an absolute requirement and it must become the foundation of DoD civilian human resources management. . . .
"The limitations imposed by the current personnel system often prevent managers from using civilian employees effectively. The Department sometimes uses military personnel or contractors when civilian employees could have and should have been the right answer. . . .
"NSPS will generate more opportunities for DoD civilians by easing the administrative burden routinely required by the current system and providing an incentive for managers to turn to them first when certain vital tasks need doing. . . .
"The NSPS is a transformation lever to enhance the Department's ability to execute its national security mission."
The imperative to respond to the Sept. 11 attacks weighs heavily in how the departments describe changes to labor relations and to compensation.
For example, the Homeland Security regulation portrays union contracts as a burden on managers leading the fight against terrorism. "The Department must be able to rely on the judgment and ability of these managers and supervisors to make day-to-day decisions -- even if this means deviating from established or negotiated procedures," the regulation says. "The reality in the department is that such deviations would be constant, thereby rendering any negotiated procedures meaningless."
On the topic of pay, the Homeland Security regulation says "we believe" that the public wants federal employees paid according to how well they perform rather than how long they have been on the job.
"The higher the performance, the higher the pay. This, too, is a fundamental principle of the new system," the regulation says.
The challenge at the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, of course, is to put this rhetoric into practice, and to convince employees that such changes will make their workplaces better.
The departments expect that the new systems will be at least four years in the making. Along the way, officials promise that they will learn from experience and adjust the systems accordingly.
Diary Live
Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, will be the guest on Federal Diary Live on www.washingtonpost.com at noon tomorrow. Please join us with your questions and comments.
E-mail: barrs@washpost.com
