AGA Today
Progress,
Setbacks Among Bush's Workforce Reforms
By Stephen Barr, The Washington Post
Friday, September 8, 2006; D04
Bold changes in
the government's organization and ambitious plans to reshape personnel
management continue to swirl around the federal workforce five years
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
President Bush
pointed to the structural changes yesterday in what he called a progress
report on the struggle against terrorism. His list included creation of
the Transportation Security Administration, which added about 54,000
jobs to the federal payroll; the merger of 22 agencies and 180,000
employees into a new Department of Homeland Security; and the decision
to pull together the 16 agencies of the intelligence community with
100,000 employees under a new position, director of national
intelligence.
"We're changing
how people can work together. We're modernizing the system," Bush said
in an Atlanta speech. "We're working to connect the dots."
Bush, of course,
did not mention the turf wars and other tensions that have accompanied
the reorganizations. He did not mention hard feelings between the
administration and unions (although he expressed appreciation for
federal agents, analysts and others who work to deter terrorist
threats). He did not address critics who question whether the
administration's changes may have created more problems than solutions.
Like many
administration officials, Bush's longtime friend and chief adviser on
federal management issues, Clay Johnson III of the Office of
Management and Budget, believes there was little choice after Sept. 11
but to launch major reorganizations.
"The
organizational changes were absolutely necessary, because the problems
we face now and the opportunities we face now are unlike anything we
have had before," he said.
Creating the
Department of Homeland Security "was an absolute necessity," Johnson
said. "Everyone knew it was going to add management challenges . . . and
take several years to be a fully functioning and well-coordinated
entity, but we had no choice."
Sen.
Susan M. Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the Senate Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said she thinks, on
balance, that the Homeland Security merger, far larger than most
private-sector consolidations, was the right approach.
"There has been
too much turnover at the top levels of the Department of Homeland
Security, and that has held the department back," Collins said. But, she
added, "we are seeing progress."
Collins said the
post-Hurricane Katrina team running the Federal Emergency Management
Agency "is far stronger than it has been in some years, and I think the
two Michaels at the top of the department" -- Secretary Michael Chertoff
and Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson -- "have learned to work
effectively together."
The promise of
managerial changes that the Bush administration claimed would create a
more agile federal workforce seem far off, however.
In 2002, Bush
signed legislation authorizing a new approach to paying, promoting and
disciplining employees at Homeland Security. In 2003, he signed similar
legislation to overhaul pay and personnel rules for about 700,000
Defense Department civil service employees.
But federal
courts have ruled, in response to lawsuits filed by federal unions, that
the administration overreached when it tried to use the new laws to
sharply restrict union rights at the Homeland Security and Defense
departments. The court rulings have slowed the rollout of the new
personnel systems.
"As far as
personnel systems changing . . . the jury is still out on whether that
is going to end up being successful," Collins said.
"Theoretically,
it should allow us to recruit and retain better employees and reward
them better, but it has been such a work in progress. It is difficult to
assess at this point," she said.
Going forward,
Collins said, the Department of Homeland Security should "draw more on
the expertise of the career workforce." She added: "I think the
department has a number of extraordinarily talented individuals,
particularly in the Coast Guard."
From his vantage
point near the White House, Johnson said he would like to see all
agencies do a better job of working across their bureaucratic boundaries
when addressing terrorist threats and natural disasters.
"We have to absolutely demand that we
be more capable than we have been in doing things on a government-wide
basis," he said.