The president's nominee to oversee the civil service, Linda M. Springer, will arrive at the Office of Personnel Management at a crucial time.
OPM is helping coordinate the rollout of pay and personnel systems at the departments of Defense and Homeland Security. The workplace changes, which include giving managers greater discretion in setting the pay of employees, could become a model for the rest of the government.
The agency is absorbing 1,850 investigators from the Defense Department as part of an administration effort to clean up a backlog of background investigations for security clearances and for sensitive jobs in the government. Last month's transfer of the Defense employees will nudge OPM into more national security issues and away from its traditional role of setting employment policy and administering benefits.
OPM also faces questions on Capitol Hill about its ability to manage a long-running effort to acquire technology for the processing of more than $50 billion annually in retirement benefits. A recent review by the Government Accountability Office, the congressional watchdog agency, suggested that the project is at risk of not being developed on time and within budget.
President Bush announced Friday afternoon that he planned to nominate Springer as director of OPM, a post that requires Senate confirmation. Springer would replace Kay Coles James, who announced her resignation Jan. 10.
Springer most recently served in the Bush administration at the Office of Management and Budget, where she was controller and in charge of financial management policy. At OMB, she pushed agencies for faster turnarounds of their year-end financial statements and urged them to produce statements that would receive clean audits. Before joining OMB, she was a longtime insurance industry executive in Pennsylvania.
Clay Johnson III, deputy director for management at OMB, called Springer "very tough but very fair and focused on tangible results." During her time at OMB, she worked with chief financial officers across government and "was very good at helping agencies learn from each other" -- a skill that will be needed as OPM advises Defense and Homeland Security and consolidates background checks for security clearances, Johnson said.
Pat McGinnis, president of the Council for Excellence in Government, said Springer proved adept at setting priorities that produced "leverage across government, and at OPM, that's what is needed."
Last year, Springer, 49, announced that she would be leaving OMB and departed as controller Jan. 25. She planned to return to Pennsylvania, where she has family, and rejoin the private sector, a friend said.
Springer could not be reached for comment, but presidential nominees usually avoid public comments while awaiting confirmation. She recently told Federal Computer Week that her resignation was not "for lack of energy or motivation or interest. It's just that, frankly, I don't get to spend time with family except on weekends."
Springer, who joined OMB in 2002 and became controller in March 2003, told the magazine that she considered it a privilege to work for the administration but that "it's not a lifestyle I wanted to commit to for another two-plus years."
But Johnson said he lobbied Springer to consider the OPM post during her last week at OMB. Springer resisted at first but soon expressed interest, Johnson said. She later turned up as a top contender for OPM on a list developed by the White House personnel office, a sign of "great minds thinking alike," Johnson quipped.
Unions and the Bush administration are at odds over regulations that will curb labor's clout in the federal workplace, and that could complicate Springer's dealings with labor leaders, a traditional part of the job. John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, expressed optimism about working with Springer but plans to take "a wait-and-see approach," an AFGE spokeswoman said.
Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said she looks forward to hearing Springer's views on personnel management at a time of "dramatic change" in workplace rules.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the committee will consider Springer's nomination "as expeditiously as possible."
E-mail: barrs@washpost.com
