U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

1 

59–010 

" ! SENATE 110th Congress 

1st Session 

REPORT

2007

110–79 

Calendar No. 196 

TO EXTEND THE DATE ON WHICH THE 

NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM 

WILL FIRST APPLY TO CERTAIN DEFENSE 

LABORATORIES 

R E P O R T 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

TO ACCOMPANY

S. 457 

TO EXTEND THE DATE ON WHICH THE NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM WILL FIRST APPLY TO CERTAIN DEFENSE LABORATORIES 

JUNE 11, 2007.—Ordered to be printed 


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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

BARACK OBAMA, Illinois 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine 

TED STEVENS, Alaska 

GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio 

NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico 

JOHN WARNER, Virginia 

JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire 

MICHAEL L. ALEXANDER, Staff Director 

LAWRENCE B. NOVEY, Senior Counsel 

JENNIFER L. TYREE, Counsel, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the 

Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia 

BRANDON L. MILHORN, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

AMANDA WOOD, Minority Counsel 

THERESA PRYCH, Minority Professional Staff Member, Subcommittee on Oversight of 

Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia 

TRINA DRIESSNACK TYRER, Chief Clerk 


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Calendar No. 196 

110TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! SENATE 1st Session 110–79 

TO EXTEND THE DATE ON WHICH THE NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM WILL FIRST APPLY TO CERTAIN DEFENSE LABORATORIES 

JUNE 11, 2007.—Ordered to be printed 

Mr. LIEBERMAN, from the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs, submitted the following 

R E P O R T 

[To accompany S. 457] 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

to which was referred the bill (S. 457) to extend the date on which 

the National Security Personnel System will first apply to certain 

defense laboratories, having considered the same reports favorably 

thereon without amendment and recommends that the bill do pass. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

I. Purpose and Summary .................................................................................. 1 

II. Background and Need for the Legislation ................................................... 2 

III. Legislative History ......................................................................................... 3 

IV. Section-by-Section Analysis .......................................................................... 3 

V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact .................................................................. 3 

VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate ................................................ 3 

VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported ........................... 4 

I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

The purpose of S. 457 is to extend from October 1, 2008, to October 1, 2011, the earliest date on which the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) may become applicable with respect to certain Department of Defense (DOD) laboratories. On and after that 

date, if S. 457 is enacted, existing statute would subject the laboratories to the NSPS only to the extent that the Secretary determines 

that the flexibilities provided by the NSPS are greater than the 

flexibilities provided to the laboratories under other authorities. 


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1Title XI of Public Law 108–136 (Nov. 24, 2003), adding 5 U.S.C. §§ 9901 et seq. 2 5 U.S.C. § 9902(c). 3The Department’s original plan for implementation was described in testimony delivered on 

March 15, 2005, by the Honorable Charles Abell, Principle Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, 

testified before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Under the proposed plan that he described, the first Spiral of NSPS, including 

up to 300,000 employees, would be implemented as early as July 2005, and the NSPS would 

be fully implemented by 2008. 4The most recent decision in this litigation was AFGE v. Gates, No. 06–5113 (D.C. Cir., May 

18, 2007). 5 5 U.S.C. § 4703. 6GAO–03–669, Results-Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to Assist Mergers and Organizational Transformations. 7 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, ‘‘Summative evaluation 2002–DoD S&T Reinvention 

Laboratory Demonstration Program,’’ 2002. 

II. BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 

2004 established the NSPS,1 which is a new personnel management system under which the DOD was granted substantial authorities for managing its civilian workforce. However, that legislation also expressed a recognition of the work that the Defense laboratories had invested into developing alternative personnel systems under separate statutory authority, by excluding the laboratories from being covered by NSPS at least until that new system 

is implemented and evaluated. Specifically, the 2003 statute stated 

that the Defense laboratories would continue being governed by 

their separate statutory authorities before October 1, 2008, and on 

and after that date would come under the NSPS only to the extent 

that the Secretary of Defense ‘‘determines that the flexibilities provided by the National Security Personnel System are greater than 

the flexibilities provided’’ to the laboratories.2

However, the Department of Defense has implemented NSPS 

more slowly than was originally planned.3 The Department converted the first group of employees, approximately 11,000, into 

NSPS in April 2006, and those employees received their first pay 

adjustment in January 2007. A second group, of approximately 

66,000 employees, referred to as Spiral 1.2, were converted to the 

NSPS performance management system between October 2006 and 

February 2007. Further slowing the Department’s implementation 

is a lawsuit filed by federal employee unions against provisions of 

the final NSPS regulations.4 As a result of the lawsuit, the Department has not converted any employees in bargaining units to the 

new system, further delaying Department-wide implementation of 

NSPS. 

Furthermore, even after this partial implementation of the 

NSPS, an additional number of years will be needed to assess the 

program. In analogous situations, Congress has established 

through the demonstration project authority of title 5, United 

States Code, a five-year time period to test and evaluate new personnel practices.5 GAO also has reported that major change management takes between five and seven years.6 Evaluations of Defense Department demonstration projects conducted by the Office of 

Personnel Management, including the original Navy project at 

China Lake, have found that such projects require more than five 

years before employee approval has reached a 66 percent threshold.7


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Accordingly, S. 457 would provide the Secretary of Defense with 

the necessary years of data on NSPS to make a thorough and informed comparison of the flexibilities in NSPS and the laboratories 

personnel authority. Under the bill, the earliest date on which the 

NSPS might be made applicable to the Defense laboratories is extended from the current statutory date of October 1, 2008 to October 1, 2011. Even then, the laboratories may be made subject to 

NSPS on and after that date only to the extent that the personnel 

flexibilities provided under the NSPS are greater than the personnel flexibilities provided to the laboratories under their existing 

statutory authorities. In this way, the Committee seeks to ensure 

the Department has a complete understanding of NSPS before 

evaluating and comparing it to the personnel systems in place at 

its laboratories. 

III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

On January 31, 2007, S. 457 was introduced by Senator 

Voinovich. Senators Bayh, Bingaman, Brown, Clinton, Domenici, 

Kennedy, Lieberman, Lott, Reed, and Sessions are cosponsors of S. 

457. The legislation was referred to the Committee on Homeland 

Security and Governmental Affairs. 

On February 15, 2007, by voice vote, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ordered S. 457 reported favorably without amendment. 

IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1. Extension of date of application of National Security Personnel System to Defense Laboratories 

This section amends section 9902 of title 5, United States Code 

by replacing ‘‘October 1, 2008’’ with ‘‘October 1, 2011.’’

V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

Pursuant to the requirement of paragraph 11(b)(1) of rule XXVI 

of the Standing Rules of the Senate the Committee has considered 

the regulatory impact of this bill. CBO states that there are no 

intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and no costs on State, local, or tribal 

governments. The legislation contains no other regulatory impact. 

VI. ESTIMATED COST OF LEGISLATION

S. 457—A bill to extend the date on which the National Security 

Personnel System will first apply to certain defense laboratories 

S. 457 would delay the implementation of the National Security 

Personnel System (NSPS) at certain defense laboratories until October 1, 2011. Under current law, the employees at those laboratories may not be brought into the NSPS before October 1, 2008. 

The NSPS was authorized as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (Public Law 108–136), and the 

new system is currently in the process of being implemented by the 

Department of Defense (DoD). In general, NSPS provides greater 

flexibility in the award of civilian pay raises and bonuses than the 

General Schedule. The original authority for the NSPS prohibits 

implementation of the new personnel system at certain defense labVerDate Aug 31 2005 06:35 Jun 13, 2007 Jkt 059010 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\SR079.XXX SR079

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oratories until October 1, 2008, in part because those laboratories 

already possess flexible hiring and compensation systems. The 

original delay in implementing the NSPS at those organizations 

was meant to allow time to study the flexibilities offered under the 

NSPS as compared to their current personnel systems. Based on 

information from DoD, those laboratories employ about 38,000 civilians. 

Because the NSPS is supposed to be implemented in a manner 

that would not affect the total payroll of the compensation system 

it is designed to replace, CBO expects that enacting S. 457 would 

have no significant budgetary effect. 

S. 457 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates 

as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not 

affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments. 

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matt Schmit. This estimate was approved by Peter H. Fontaine, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. 

VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the Standing 

Rules of the Senate, the following changes in existing law made by 

the bill, as reported, are shown as follows: (existing law proposed 

to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, new matter is printed 

in italic, existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in 

roman): 

UNITED STATES CODE 

TITLE 5. GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION AND 

EMPLOYEES 

Subpart I—Miscellaneous 

CHAPTER 99. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NATIONAL 

SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM 

SEC. 9902. ESTABLISHMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 

SYSTEM 

* * * * * * * 

(c) PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT AT DEFENSE LABORATORIES.—(1) 

The National Security Personnel System shall not apply with respect to a laboratory under paragraph (2) before øOctober 1, 2008¿ 

October 1, 2011, and shall apply on or after øOctober 1, 2008¿ October 1, 2011, only to the extent that the Secretary determines that 

the flexibilities provided by the National Security Personnel System are greater than the flexibilities provided to those laboratories 

pursuant to section 342 of the National Defense Authorization Act 

for Fiscal Year 1995 (Public Law 103–337; 108 Stat. 2721) and section 1101 of the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization 

Act for Fiscal Year 1999 (5 U.S.C. 3104 note), respectively. 

* * * * * * * 

Æ 


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