Earlier this week, NFFE National President Richard N. Brown submitted testimony to the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Readiness regarding the future of the controversial National Security Personnel System (NSPS).
The hearing was held in the wake of growing criticism of the system from federal employee unions and high-ranking members of Congress.
“NSPS is a failed plan that has been fundamentally flawed since its inception. NSPS was never intended to be a modern, good government personnel system. It was intended to eliminate federal employee unions and suppress pay for the majority of DoD workers,” said Brown.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) and Subcommittee Chairman Solomon Ortiz (D-TX) echoed President Brown’s concerns about the efficacy of the system:
“The National Security Personnel System of the Department of Defense made wholesale changes to the current federal employee system, resulting in widespread distrust and discontent within the ranks of hundreds of thousands of dedicated DOD employees, both among those who have been converted and those who have not been converted.”
In response to these concerns, DoD and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently ordered a halt to employee conversions to the system, pending a joint review by the agencies.
“We applaud DoD for taking the time to review the personnel system, but this is by no means the end,” said Brown. “We will continue to voice our members concerns about this fundamentally flawed system until it is wiped clear from the books. We will accept nothing short of a complete repeal of NSPS.”
Click Here for a Printable Version of President Brown’s NSPS Testimony