You are given two reports by the government agency.  

Report 1:
This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the John Lewis (TAO-205) class oiler shipbuilding program, a program to build a new class of 20 fleet oilers for the Navy. The Navy's proposed FY2020 budget requests the procurement of the fifth and sixth ships in the program. Issues for Congress regarding the TAO-205 program include the following: whether to approve, reject, or modify the Navy's FY2020 procurement funding request for the program; the number of oilers the Navy will require in coming years to support its operations; and whether to encourage or direct the Navy to build TAO-205s with more ship self-defense equipment than currently planned by the Navy. Decisions that Congress makes regarding the program could affect Navy capabilities and funding requirements and the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base. For an overview of the strategic and budgetary context in which the TAO-205 program and other Navy shipbuilding programs may be considered, see CRS Report RL32665, Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress , by Ronald O'Rourke. The primary role of Navy fleet oilers is to transfer fuel to Navy surface ships that are operating at sea, so as to extend the operating endurance of these surface ships and their embarked aircraft. Fleet oilers also provide other surface ships with lubricants, fresh water, and small amounts of dry cargo. Fleet oilers transfer fuel and other supplies to other surface ships in operations called underway replenishments (UNREPs). During an UNREP, an oiler steams next to the receiving ship and transfers fuel by hose (see Figure 1 , Figure 2 , and Figure 3 ). Oilers are one kind of Navy UNREP ship; other Navy UNREP ships include ammunition ships, dry cargo ships, and multiproduct replenishment ships. The Navy's UNREP ships are known more formally as the Navy's combat logistics force (CLF). Most of the Navy's CLF ships are operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC). Navy oilers carry the designation TAO (sometimes written as T-AO). The T means that the ships are operated by MSC with a mostly civilian crew; the A means it is an auxiliary ship of some kind; and the O means that it is, specifically, an oiler. Although the role of fleet oilers might not be considered as glamorous as that of other Navy ships, fleet oilers are critical to the Navy's ability to operate in forward-deployed areas around the world on a sustained basis. The U.S. Navy's ability to perform UNREP operations in a safe and efficient manner on a routine basis is a skill that many other navies lack. An absence of fleet oilers would significantly complicate the Navy's ability to operate at sea on a sustained basis in areas such as the Western Pacific or the Indian Ocean/Persian Gulf region. The Navy states that the ability to rearm, refuel and re-provision our ships at sea, independent of any restrictions placed on it by a foreign country, is critical to the Navy's ability to project warfighting power from the sea. As the lifeline of resupply to Navy operating forces underway, the ships of the Navy's Combat Logistic Force (CLF) enable Carrier Strike Groups and Amphibious Ready Groups to operate forward and remain on station during peacetime and war, with minimal reliance on host nation support. The Navy's existing force of fleet oilers consists of 15 Henry J. Kaiser (TAO-187) class ships ( Figure 4 ). These ships were procured between FY1982 and FY1989 and entered service between 1986 and 1996. They have an expected service life of 35 years; the first ship in the class will reach that age in 2021. The ships are about 677 feet long and have a full load displacement of about 41,000 tons, including about 26,500 tons of fuel and other cargo. The ships were built by Avondale Shipyards of New Orleans, LA, a shipyard that eventually became part of the shipbuilding firm Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII). HII subsequently wound down Navy shipbuilding operations at Avondale, and the facility no longer builds ships. (HII continues to operate two other shipyards that build Navy ships.) The TAO-205 class program was originally called the TAO(X) program, with the (X) meaning that the exact design of the ship had not yet been determined. On January 6, 2015, then-Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced that ships in the class will be named for "people who fought for civil rights and human rights," and that the first ship in the class, TAO-205, which was procured in FY2016, will be named for Representative John Lewis. The class consequently is now known as the John Lewis (TAO-205) class. As part of its goal for achieving a fleet of 355 ships, the Navy wants to procure a total of 20 TAO-205 class ships. The required number of oilers largely depends on the numbers and types of other surface ships (and their embarked aircraft) to be refueled, and the projected operational patterns for these ships and aircraft. The first TAO-205 class ship was procured in FY2016, the second in FY2018, and the third and fourth in FY2019. The Navy's FY2020 five-year (FY2020-FY2023) shipbuilding plan calls for procuring the next seven ships in the class in annual quantities of 2-1-1-2-1. The Navy's FY2020 30-year (FY2020-FY2049) shipbuilding plan calls for procuring the remaining nine ships in the program at a rate of one per year starting in FY2025. The first TAO-205 is scheduled for delivery in November 2020. Table 1 shows procurement funding for the TAO-205 program in the Navy's FY2020 budget submission. The Navy's FY2020 budget submission estimates the total procurement cost of the 20 planned TAO-205s at $12,196.1 million (i.e., about 12.2 billion) in then-year dollars, or an average of $609.8 million each. Since the figure of $12,196.1 million is in then-year dollars, it incorporates estimated annual inflation rates for TAO-205s to be procured out to FY2033. The TAO-205 class design ( Figure 5 ) will have capabilities similar to those of the Kaiser-class ships, and will rely on existing technologies rather than new technologies. To guard against oil spills, TAO-205s are to be double-hulled, like modern commercial oil tankers, with a space between the two hulls to protect the inner hull against events that puncture the outer hull. (The final Kaiser-class ships are double-hulled, but earlier ships in the class are single-hulled.) TAO-205s are being built by General Dynamics/National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (GD/NASSCO) of San Diego, CA, a shipyard that builds Navy auxiliaries and DOD sealift ships. On June 25, 2015, the Navy, as part of its acquisition strategy for TAO-205 program, issued a combined solicitation consisting of separate Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for the detailed design and construction (DD&C) of the first six TAO-205s; the DD&C in FY2017 (and also procurement of long lead-time materials in FY2016) for an amphibious assault ship called LHA-8 that the Navy procured in FY2017; and contract design support for the LPD-17 Flight II program (previously called the LX[R] program), a program to procure a new class of 13 amphibious ships. The Navy limited bidding in this combined solicitation to two bidders—Ingalls Shipbuilding of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII/Ingalls) and GD/NASSCO—on the grounds that these are the only two shipbuilders that have the capability to build both TAO-205s and LHA-8. Under the Navy's plan for the combined solicitation, one of these two yards was to be awarded the DD&C contract for the first six TAO-205s, the other yard was to be awarded the DD&C contract (and procurement of long lead-time materials) for LHA-8, and the shipyard with the lowest combined evaluated price was to receive a higher profit on its DD&C contract and was to be awarded the majority of the LPD-17 Flight II contract design engineering man-hours. On June 30, 2016, the Navy announced its awards in the above-described combined solicitation, awarding a fixed price incentive block buy contract for the DD&C of the first six TAO-205s to GD/NASSCO. (The Navy awarded the contract for the DD&C of LHA-8 to HII/Ingalls. HII/Ingalls was also awarded the majority of the LPD-17 Flight II contract design engineering man-hours.) The Navy was granted authority for using a block buy contract to procure the first six TAO-205s by Section 127 of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act ( S. 1356 / P.L. 114-92 of November 25, 2015). It was earlier estimated that the block buy contract would reduce the procurement cost of the second through sixth TAO-205s by an average of about $45 million each, compared to costs under the standard or default DOD approach of annual contracting. The Navy states that about $35 million of the $45 million in per-ship savings will come from using advance procurement (AP) funding for batch-ordering TAO-205 components. The Navy states that this use of AP funding could have occurred under annual contracting, and that the savings that are intrinsic to the block buy contract are thus about $10 million per ship. Section 8117 of the FY2019 Appropriations Act (Division A of H.R. 6157 / P.L. 115-245 of September 28, 2018) states the following: Sec. 8117. None of the funds provided in this Act for the TAO Fleet Oiler program shall be used to award a new contract that provides for the acquisition of the following components unless those components are manufactured in the United States: Auxiliary equipment (including pumps) for shipboard services; propulsion equipment (including engines, reduction gears, and propellers); shipboard cranes; and spreaders for shipboard cranes. The Appendix presents the Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) assessment of the TAO-205 class program from GAO's annual report surveying DOD major acquisition programs. The Navy's proposed FY2020 budget requests the procurement of the 5th and 6th ships in the program. The Navy estimates the combined procurement cost of the two ships at $1,056.3 million, or an average of $528.1 million each. The two ships have received $75.0 million in prior-year advance procurement (AP) funding, and the Navy's proposed FY2020 budget requests the remaining $981.2 million in procurement funding needed to complete the two ships' estimated combined procurement cost. The Navy's proposed FY2020 budget also requests $73.0 million in AP funding for TAO-205s to be procured in future fiscal years, and $3.7 million in cost-to-complete procurement funding to cover cost growth on TAO-205s procured in prior fiscal years, bringing the total FY2020 procurement funding request for the TAO-205 program (aside from outfitting and post-delivery costs) to $1,057.9 million. One issue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify the Navy's FY2020 procurement funding request for the TAO-205 program. In assessing this issue, Congress may consider, among other things, whether the Navy has accurately priced the work that it is requesting to fund in FY2020. Another issue for Congress concerns the number of oilers the Navy will require in coming years to support its operations. The Navy is implementing a new operational concept, called Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), that could lead to the development of a fleet with larger numbers of individually smaller ships, and to more-widely dispersed Navy operations. DMO could affect requirements for Navy logistics, including oilers. The Navy states that Recapitalizing the auxiliary and sealift fleet in support of DMO has become a top priority. The initial reviews of the requirements to support this operational maritime concept indicate potential growth across the five lines of effort: refuel, rearm, resupply, repair, and revive. Coincident is the review of the level of effort needed to distribute logistics into a contested maritime environment following safe transfer by the logistics fleet—smaller, faster, multi-mission transports likely resident within the future battle force. The work to fully flesh out the requirement is ongoing, but the aggregate is expected to be no less than the current requirement, reinforcing the urgency to recapitalize the current fleet. An August 2017 GAO report states the following: The readiness of the surge sealift and combat logistics fleets has trended downward since 2012. For example, GAO found that mission-limiting equipment casualties—incidents of degraded or out-of-service equipment—have increased over the past 5 years, and maintenance periods are running longer than planned, indicating declining materiel readiness across both fleets.... The Navy has not assessed the effects of widely distributed operations, which could affect the required number and type of combat logistics ships. The Navy released its new operational concept of more widely distributed operations—ships traveling farther distances and operating more days to support a more distributed fleet—in 2017. The Navy has not assessed the effects that implementing this concept will have on the required number and type of combat logistics ships. These effects could be exacerbated in the event that the Navy is less able to rely on in-port refueling—which has comprised about 30 percent of all refuelings over the past 3 years—placing greater demand on the combat logistics fleet. Given the fleet's dependence on the combat logistics force, waiting until 2019 or 2020 to conduct an assessment, as planned, could result in poor investment decisions as the Navy continues to build and modernize its fleet. Furthermore, without assessing the effects of widely distributed operations on logistics force requirements and modifying its force structure plans accordingly, the Navy risks being unprepared to provide required fuel and other supplies. Another issue for Congress is whether to encourage or direct the Navy to build TAO-205s with more ship self-defense equipment than currently planned by the Navy. The issue relates to how changes in the international security environment might affect how the Navy operates and equips its underway replenishment ships. During the Cold War, the Navy procured underway replenishment ships to support a two-stage approach to underway replenishment in which single-product "shuttle" ships (such as oilers, ammunition ships, and dry stores ships) would take their supplies from secure ports to relatively safe midocean areas, where they would then transfer them to multiproduct "station" ships called TAOEs and AORs. The TAOEs and AORs would then travel to Navy carrier strike groups operating in higher-threat areas and transfer their combined supplies to the carrier strike group ships. As a result, single-product shuttle ships were equipped with lesser amounts of ship self-defense equipment, and TAOEs and AORs were equipped with greater amounts of such equipment. When the Cold War ended and transitioned to the post-Cold War era, threats to U.S. Navy ships operating at sea were substantially reduced. As a consequence, the amount of ship self-defense equipment on the TAOEs and AORs was reduced, and a single-stage approach to underway replenishment, in which oilers and dry stores ships took supplies from secure ports all the way to carrier strike group ships, was sometimes used. Now that the post-Cold War era has transitioned to a new strategic environment featuring renewed great power competition with countries like China and Russia, and a consequent renewal of potential threats to U.S. Navy ships operating at sea, the question is whether TAO-205s should be equipped with lesser amounts of ship self-defense equipment, like oilers were during both the Cold War and post-Cold War eras, or with greater amounts of ship self-defense equipment, like TAOEs and AORs were during the Cold War. Building TAO-205s with more ship self-defense equipment than currently planned by the Navy could increase TAO-205 procurement costs by tens of millions of dollars per ship, depending on the amount of additional ship self-defense equipment. Section 1026 of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act ( S. 1356 / P.L. 114-92 of November 25, 2015) required an independent assessment of the Navy's combat logistics force ships. The report was delivered to Congress in February 2016. A copy of the report was posted by the media outlet Politico on March 11, 2016. The report states the following: The T-AO(X) will only have a limited capability to defeat a submarine launched torpedo attack and no capability to defeat a missile attack. When delivered, the TAO(X) will have: —[the] NIXIE Torpedo Countermeasure System [for decoying certain types of torpedoes] —[the] Advanced Degaussing System (Anti-Mine) [for reducing the ship's magnetic signature, so as to reduce the likelihood of attack by magnetically fused mines] When required, the T-AO(X) will also have ability to embark Navy Expeditionary Combat Command Expeditionary Security Teams (EST). The ESTs will embark with several crew served weapons and are designed to provide limited self-defense against a small boat attack. The T-AO(X) will have Space, Weight, Power and Cooling (SWAP-C) margins for future installations of the following systems: —[the] Close In Weapon System (CIWS) or SeaRAM (Rolling Airframe Missile) [for defense against missile attack] —[the] Anti-Torpedo Torpedo Defense System (ATTDS) [for destroying torpedoes] Even after the installation of a CIWS or ATTDS, if the T-AO(X) was to operate in anything other than a benign environment, the ship will require both air and surface escorts. The decision to rely on [other] Fleet assets to provide force protection [i.e., defense against attacks] for the T-AO(X) was validated by the JROC [in June 2015]. Table 2 summarizes congressional action on the Navy's request for FY2020 procurement funding for the TAO-205 program. A May 2019 GAO report—the 2019 edition of GAO's annual report surveying DOD major acquisition programs—stated the following regarding the TAO-205 program: Technology Maturity and Design Stability The Navy has matured all Lewis class critical technologies and stabilized the ships' design. In 2014, the Navy identified three critical technologies for the Lewis class, all of which involved a new system for transferring cargo at sea. Prior to initiating detail design activities in June 2016, the Navy completed prototype tests of the critical technologies and found that they were fully mature—an approach consistent with shipbuilding best practices. In 2017, the Navy removed one critical technology—the Heavy e-STREAM cargo delivery system—from the Lewis class design. The Navy had intended to use this system to deliver F-35 Lightning II power modules. The Navy subsequently decided to deliver these by air, which precluded any need for the Heavy system. Lead ship construction began in September 2018 with 95 percent of the ship's total design effort complete. Program officials stated that this figure meant that 100 percent of the ship's basic and functional design were by then complete—an approach consistent with best practices. Throughout detail design and now into construction, the Navy has not changed the Lewis class program's performance requirements. The Navy also leveraged commercial vessel designs to minimize design and construction risks. The Lewis class features a modern double-hull construction, an environmental-based design standard for commercial tankers, to ensure the ships can dock at ports-of-call. This design was included in the final three Kaiser class oilers. Production Readiness The program office has largely kept to its construction schedule to date for the first ship, but a flooding incident at a NASSCO graving dock in July 2018 has affected the delivery of future ships. The program office stated that this incident has not affected current ship fabrication activities. However, the dock's unavailability while repairs are planned and implemented has disrupted the contractor's schedule for future ships. According to the program office, the incident has resulted in some delays to certain delivery dates for ships two through six. Other Program Issues As part of the Navy's plan to expand the fleet, the Navy concluded that it would need an additional three Lewis class ships. The Navy's budget request for fiscal year 2019 increased its planned one-ship-per-year buy to two for fiscal years 2019, 2021, and 2023. The Congress provided appropriations for the additional fiscal year 2019 ship in support of the Navy's request. To account for the additional ships in fiscal years 2019 and 2021, the Navy plans to add two more ships to the low-rate initial production phase. Subsequently, program officials stated that they plan to compete a new contract for the remaining 12 ships using the construction knowledge gained from efforts under the existing contract. Program Office Comments We provided a draft of this assessment to the program office for review and comment. The program office provided technical comments, which we incorporated where appropriate. The program office stated that it continues to follow GAO shipbuilding best practices and has leveraged commercial vessel design practices to minimize risk. The program office also stated that it is currently revising its acquisition baseline to reflect the update in total quantities to 20 ships. In addition, the program office noted that, in fiscal year 2019, it fully funded the third and fourth ships and funded advance procurement for the fifth ship.

 

 Report 2:
The federal government is the nation's largest employer, with over two million workers employed in the United States, U.S. Territories, and foreign countries. A majority of these employees work in the competitive service of the executive branch. Applicants for competitive service positions compete with other applicants and are evaluated according to objective standards. The executive branch includes two other service classifications—the excepted service and the Senior Executive Service (SES)—with hiring and removal standards that diverge from those prescribed for the competitive service. Positions in the excepted service are specifically excepted from the competitive service by statute, by the President, or by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). SES positions are also not in the competitive service. The SES includes senior managerial, supervisory, and policy positions that are subject to a different pay scale, as well as different hiring and removal standards. This report examines the three service classifications, and reviews some of the central features and notable differences among these classifications. The competitive service consists of all civil service positions in the executive branch, except the following: positions that are specifically excepted from the competitive service by or under statute; positions to which appointments are made by presidential nomination for confirmation by the Senate, unless the Senate otherwise directs; and positions in the SES. The competitive service also includes non-executive branch positions and positions in the District of Columbia government that are specifically included in the competitive service by statute. OPM administers examinations for entrance into the competitive service. These examinations are meant to be "practical in character" and relate to "matters that fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the applicants for the appointment sought[.]" OPM identifies the relative weights for the subjects in an examination, and assigns numerical ratings on a 100-point scale. Applicants who meet the minimum requirements for entrance to an examination, such as citizenship and residence requirements, and are rated 70 or more in the examination are eligible for appointment in the competitive service. These individuals are placed on registers or lists of eligibles. When an agency seeks to fill a competitive service position, it requests a certificate of eligibles from OPM. This certificate is to include enough names from the top of the relevant register to allow an agency appointing official to consider at least three individuals for every position to be filled. The competitive service includes several types of appointments. An individual selected for a continuing position is generally appointed as a career-conditional employee subject to an initial one-year probationary period. After three continuous years of service in a career-conditional appointment, an employee will be converted to a career appointment. A term appointment is a nonpermanent appointment for a period of more than one year, but less than four years. An agency may make a term appointment when the need for an employee's services is not permanent, but involves a special project, extraordinary workload, or reorganization. A temporary appointment is a time-limited appointment for a period not to exceed one year. An agency may make a temporary appointment to fill a short-term position or meet an employment need that is scheduled to end within a specified timeframe. Employees in the competitive service are generally paid in accordance with the General Schedule, a schedule of annual basic pay rates that consists of 15 grades, designated "GS-1" through "GS-15." The grades include 10 steps that provide for increasing rates of pay. An employee who has not reached the maximum pay rate for his or her position is generally advanced to the next step at specified intervals. General Schedule salaries are based on the principles that there is equal pay for substantially equal work within a local pay area, that any pay distinctions are based on work and performance, that federal pay rates are comparable with non-federal pay rates for the same level of work, and that any pay disparities between federal and non-federal employees should be eliminated. Employees in the competitive service who are not serving a probationary or trial period, or have completed one year of current continuous service in a position other than a temporary appointment limited to one year or less, maintain specified notice and appeal rights for adverse personnel actions. Before an agency may suspend such a qualifying employee for 14 days or less, the employee must be given an advance written notice that identifies the specific reasons for the suspension. The employee must also be provided a reasonable time to answer the notice and furnish affidavits and other evidence to support the answer. Similar notice is required before an agency may subject a qualifying employee to other adverse personnel actions. Before a removal, a suspension for more than 14 days, a reduction in grade or pay, or a furlough of 30 days or less, the agency must provide at least 30 days' advance written notice to the employee. The employee must also be given a reasonable time to respond to the notice and provide affidavits and other evidence to support the answer. Unlike suspensions for 14 days or less, these adverse actions may be appealed to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB or Board), an independent, quasi-judicial agency that reviews and adjudicates specified personnel actions taken against qualifying federal employees. In general, an agency must establish three factors to withstand an individual's challenge of his or her adverse personnel action. First, the agency must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the charged conduct occurred. Second, it must establish a nexus between that conduct and the efficiency of the civil service. Finally, the agency must show that the penalty imposed on the employee is reasonable. An agency's action may not be sustained if the appellant shows: (1) harmful error in applying the agency's procedures in arriving at its decision; (2) that the decision was based on a prohibited personnel practice; or (3) that the decision was not in accordance with law. About one-third of all federal workers are employed in the excepted service. The excepted service consists of those civil service positions that are not in the competitive service or the SES. Positions in the excepted service may be designated by statute or by OPM, and are not subject to competitive examination. OPM will exempt a position from the competitive service when it determines that an appointment through competitive examination is not practicable, or the recruitment of certain students or recent graduates would be better achieved through alternate recruitment and assessment processes. For example, OPM may determine that a position should be excepted from the competitive service because it is impracticable to examine the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for a position. Positions in the excepted service are categorized into four schedules. Schedule A includes positions that are not of a confidential or policy-determining character for which it is not practicable to examine applicants. Attorneys, chaplains, and short-term positions for which there is a critical hiring need are examples of schedule A positions. Schedule B also includes positions that are not of a confidential or policy-determining character for which it is not practicable to examine applicants. Unlike Schedule A positions, however, these positions require an applicant to satisfy basic qualification standards established by OPM for the relevant occupation and grade level. Individuals appointed to schedule B positions engage in a variety of activities, including policy analysis, teaching, and technical assistance. Positions in schedule C are policy-determining or involve a close and confidential working relationship with the head of an agency or other key appointed officials. These positions include most political appointees below the cabinet and subcabinet levels. An agency's senior advisor and special assistant positions are typically in schedule C. Finally, schedule D includes positions that are not of a confidential or policy-determining character for which competitive examination makes it difficult to recruit a sufficient number of certain students or recent graduates. Examples of schedule D positions include those involving science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) occupations and positions in the Presidential Management Fellows Program. Schedule D positions generally require an applicant to satisfy basic qualification standards established by OPM for the relevant occupation and grade level. Like employees in the competitive service, excepted service employees are generally paid in accordance with the General Schedule. In addition, excepted service employees maintain the same notice and appeal rights for adverse personnel actions. Some employees in the excepted service, however, must satisfy different durational requirements before these rights become available. So-called "preference eligibles" in an executive agency, the Postal Service, or the Postal Rate Commission must complete one year of current continuous service to avail themselves of the relevant notice and appeal rights. The term "preference eligible" refers to specified military veterans and some of their family members, such as an unmarried widow, and the wife or husband of a service-connected disabled veteran. Employees in the excepted service who are not preference eligibles and (1) are not serving a probationary or trial period under an initial appointment pending conversion to the competitive service, or (2) have completed two years of current or continuous service in the same or similar position, have the same notice and appeal rights as qualifying employees in the competitive service. The SES is a cadre of high-level government administrators who manage major programs and projects within most federal agencies. While they are considered federal employees within the civil service system, the SES is governed by a regulatory structure separate from the competitive and excepted services. As defined in statute, SES positions are generally managerial or supervisory positions that are classified above the GS-15 grade (or certain equivalent positions) and need not be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. In these leadership roles, SES members may serve as intermediaries between top-level political appointees of an agency who seek to carry out the objectives of a particular President and career civil servants with institutional experience relating to relevant issues. According to a 2018 report, there are currently more than 7,000 permanent SES positions. There are two types of SES positions: (1) career reserved and (2) general. Career reserved positions must be filled with career appointees to shield certain SES roles from political influence. Generally, agency heads are to determine whether a particular SES position warrants a career reserved designation, to "ensure impartiality, or the public's confidence in the impartiality, of the Government." OPM regulations reflect the types of SES roles in which this designation is appropriate, including those involving adjudication and appeals, auditing, and law enforcement duties. General positions may be filled by career appointees, as well as other noncareer and limited term (i.e., political) appointees. There are four types of SES appointments: career, noncareer, limited term, and limited emergency appointees. The SES mainly consists of "career appointees" chosen through a merit-based competitive hiring process. As part of this process, each agency must maintain a recruitment program for career appointees, as well as at least one executive board that reviews qualifications and makes recommendations regarding SES candidates. An OPM-convened Qualification Review Board (QRB) must certify the executive and managerial qualifications of a selected candidate before a career appointment may be made to an SES position. Unlike career appointees, noncareer appointees are not subject to the competitive selection process, but agency heads must determine that these appointees meet the qualifications of the SES position. While noncareer appointees are not QRB-certified, OPM must approve these appointees. Limited term and limited emergency appointees make up a small subset of the SES, and their terms are non-renewable. These appointments are used when a position is needed for a specified period (such as to manage a special project), or a position is established to meet a "bona fide, unanticipated, urgent need." Limited term and limited emergency appointments are also subject to OPM approval. To restrict the politicization of the SES, Title 5 of the U.S. Code (Title 5) limits the number of noncareer and limited term appointees who may serve in SES positions. The SES pay structure is also distinct from the rest of the civil service. Title 5 specifies that the pay rate of each senior executive is based on the executive's individual performance or contribution to agency performance (or both), as measured under a "rigorous" performance appraisal system. Each federal agency must maintain at least one of these appraisal systems, subject to OPM standards, review, and approval. Performance appraisals of SES members may consider factors such as improvements in efficiency, productivity, and quality of work or service, cost efficiency, and performance timeliness. In response to earlier concerns that SES appraisal systems were flawed because most executives received the highest rating, Title 5 tasks OPM, in collaboration with the Office of Management and Budget, with the establishment and maintenance of a government-wide performance appraisal system certification process, in an effort to ensure that an agency's appraisal systems for SES employees make "meaningful distinctions based on relative performance." Title 5 also sets out different pay rates for the SES, with a minimum rate of basic pay equal to 120 percent of the rate for GS-15, step 1, and a maximum rate of basic pay equal to the rate for Level III of the Executive Schedule. But SES members' annual aggregate pay (that includes additional compensation such as bonuses, awards, and other payments in addition to basic pay) is capped at the rate for Level I of the Executive Schedule. If a senior executive's total compensation exceeds the aggregate limitation, the executive receives the overage in the following calendar year. To encourage federal agencies to establish and maintain an OPM-certified performance appraisal system, Title 5 allows for a higher range of SES pay for agencies that have these certified systems. Title 5 also articulates conditions and procedures for removing, suspending, or taking other adverse actions against a member of the SES. Career SES appointees who have successfully completed a one-year probationary period may be removed or subject to adverse action only for specified reasons. For example, an SES career appointee may be removed from the civil service or suspended for more than 14 days only for misconduct, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or failure to accept a directed reassignment or to accompany a position in a transfer of function. SES members must receive advance written notice about the action and opportunity to provide an answer or receive hearing, subject to exception. The senior executive may also appeal the employment action to the MSPB. A career appointee receiving a single unsatisfactory performance rating may be reassigned or transferred within the SES or removed from the SES. A career SES member who receives two unsatisfactory ratings in any period of five consecutive years, or twice in any period of three consecutive years receives less than fully successful ratings, must be removed from the SES. Affected SES career appointees must receive advance written notice of these actions. While these appointees may not appeal these actions to the MSPB, they may request an informal hearing before the Board. SES career appointees are also generally entitled to be placed in a civil service position at GS-15 or above (or an equivalent position). In comparison, noncareer, limited term, and limited emergency appointees are generally not subject to the same removal protections and may be removed from the SES at any time. The procedures for removal of noncareer and limited term appointees are largely not addressed in federal statute, and the terms and procedures for their removal are mainly at the discretion of the agency head. In response to concerns about performance and accountability of SES members employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Congress recently created special removal requirements that apply to these positions. In 2017, Congress passed the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which amended an existing provision concerning removal procedures for these covered senior executives. Under the 2017 Act, the VA Secretary has discretion to suspend, demote, remove, or take other actions against SES career appointees or other high-level executives if the Secretary determines that the individual's misconduct or performance warrants such action. To address SES job performance issues more expeditiously, SES employees at the VA Department are entitled to abbreviated notice and appeals rights, as compared to the removal procedures in place in other federal agencies.

Question: Write a one-page summary of the report 1.

Answer: The Navy began procuring John Lewis (TAO-205) class oilers in FY2016, and a total of four have been procured through FY2019, including two in FY2019. The first six ships are being procured under a block buy contract that was authorized by Section 127 of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1356/P.L. 114-92 of November 25, 2015). The Navy wants to procure a total of 20 TAO-205s. The Navy's proposed FY2020 budget requests the procurement of the fifth and sixth ships in the program. The Navy estimates the combined procurement cost of the two ships at $1,056.3 million, or an average of $528.1 million each. The two ships have received $75.0 million in prior-year advance procurement (AP) funding, and the Navy's proposed FY2020 budget requests the remaining $981.2 million in procurement funding needed to complete the two ships' estimated combined procurement cost. The Navy's proposed FY2020 budget also requests $73.0 million in AP funding for TAO-205s to be procured in future fiscal years, and $3.7 million in cost-to-complete procurement funding to cover cost growth on TAO-205s procured in prior fiscal years, bringing the total FY2020 procurement funding request for the TAO-205 program (aside from outfitting and post-delivery costs) to $1,057.9 million. Issues for Congress include the following: whether to approve, reject, or modify the Navy's FY2020 procurement funding request for the TAO-205 program; the number of oilers the Navy will require in coming years to support its operations; and whether to encourage or direct the Navy to build TAO-205s with more ship self-defense equipment than currently planned by the Navy.