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89–527 PDF 2014

S. Hrg. 113–443 

NOMINATION OF HON. JULIA A. CLARK 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON 

HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

NOMINATION OF HON. JULIA A. CLARK, TO BE GENERAL COUNSEL, 

FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY 

APRIL 29, 2014 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov/ 

Printed for the use of the 

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

( 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware Chairman 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

MARK BEGICH, Alaska 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin 

ROB PORTMAN, Ohio 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

JOHN P. KILVINGTON, Acting Staff Director 

DEIRDRE G. ARMSTRONG, Professional Staff Member 

STEPHANIE A. WILKINSON, Counsel, Subcommittee on the Efficiency and Effectiveness of 

Federal Programs and the Federal Workforce 

KEITH B. ASHDOWN, Minority Staff Director 

CHRISTOPHER J. BARKLEY, Minority Deputy Staff Director 

ANDREW C. DOCKHAM, Minority Chief Counsel 

SALLY ANNE BRAEUER, Minority Counsel 

DARIEN B. FLOWERS, Minority Research Assistant, Subcommittee on the Efficiency and 

Effectiveness of Federal Programs and the Federal Workforce 

LAURA W. KILBRIDE, Chief Clerk 

LAUREN M. CORCORAN, Hearing Clerk 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Opening statements: Page 

Senator Tester .................................................................................................. 1 

Senator Portman .............................................................................................. 2 

Prepared statement: 

Senator Tester .................................................................................................. 13 

WITNESSES 

TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 2014 

Hon. Julia A. Clark, Nominated to be General Counsel, Federal Labor Relations Authority 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 3 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 14 

Biographical and financial information .......................................................... 18 

Letter from the Office of Government Ethics ................................................. 33 

Responses to pre-hearing questions ................................................................ 35 

(1) 

1 Information referred to by Senator Tester appears in the Appendix on page 18. 

NOMINATION OF HON. JULIA A. CLARK 

TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 2014 

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY

AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, 

Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:32 p.m., in room 

SD–342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jon Tester, presiding. 

Present: Senators Tester and Portman. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR TESTER 

Senator TESTER. I will call to order this hearing of the Senate 

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. 

We convene this afternoon’s hearing to consider the nomination 

of Julia Clark to serve as the General Counsel of the Federal Labor 

Relations Authority (FLRA). 

Julia Clark has filed responses to a biographical and financial 

questionnaire, answered prehearing questions submitted by the 

Committee, and has had her financial statements reviewed by the 

Office of Government Ethics (OGE). Without objection, this information will be made part of the hearing record,1 with the exception 

of the financial data, which are on file and available for public inspection in the Committee offices. 

Julia Clark currently serves as General Counsel (GC) for the 

Federal Labor Relations Authority and has been in this position 

since 2009. Julia started her legal career at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and brought over 20 years of labor law experience to the 

FLRA. Thank you, Julia, for joining us today. 

Senator Portman obviously is not here yet. He is en route, and 

when he gets here, we will certainly respect his opportunity to give 

an opening statement, but we will continue on with our Committee 

agenda. 

Our Committee rules require that all witnesses at nominations 

hearings give their testimony under oath. Ms. Clark, would you 

please stand and raise your right hand. 

Do you swear that the testimony you are about to give to the 

Committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 

truth, so help you, God? 

Ms. CLARK. I do. 

Senator TESTER. Let the record reflect that the witness answered 

in the affirmative. 
2 

With that, I will turn it over to Senator Portman for his opening 

statement. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PORTMAN 

Senator PORTMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You just went 

through the hardest part of this hearing. [Laughter.] 

I appreciate the fact that Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Coburn asked us to hold this hearing, and Senator Tester, as 

usual, took responsibility. We thank you for being here to answer 

some of our questions. We want to tell you that we are here to ask 

you questions and be sure you are the right person for the job, but 

we are impressed with your public service. I know you went 

through this back in 2009, so you have experienced a nomination 

and a confirmation process. 

This is a critical juncture for the Federal Labor Relations Authority, because after a lot of years of significant backlogs and low 

employee morale, it appears that the agency is finally turning 

things around. Back in 2009, when you were just starting at FLRA, 

there was a backlog of nearly a thousand unfair labor practice 

(ULP) complaints and appeals cases. I am told that backlog has 

now been almost completely eliminated. I want to hear about that 

issue from you. If you are confirmed, my understanding is one of 

your top priorities would be to continue to process cases in a timely 

and efficient manner. 

One of the most important factors, as we see, in addressing the 

backlog was the Office of General Counsel’s (OGC) decision in 2010 

to amend its regulations to authorize alternative dispute resolution 

(ADR), and I want to talk to you about that. I think that is a good 

approach to save litigation time and valuable resources, so in my 

view that is a good policy change and we want it to continue. I 

want to ask you about that. 

I would say, even with these successes, the recent history of the 

FLRA has not been without its challenges. We are all aware the 

Authority came in dead last on the Partnership for Public Service’s 

‘‘Best Places to Work in the Federal Government’’ survey in 2005, 

2007, and 2009. It seems like you have made some strides in terms 

of your internal management and now you rank No. 8 out of 29 

small agencies for employee satisfaction. I was concerned to see 

employee satisfaction fall in a number of important areas between 

2012 and 2013, including in the ‘‘performance-based rewards and 

advancement’’ area, and the ‘‘effective leadership’’ area. 

I am sure we will be able to talk about some of these issues and 

can agree that more can be done to ensure efficiency and effectiveness fulfilling your responsibility at FLRA to foster lawful and productive relations between Federal employees and government managers. We look forward to discussing those issues and other issues 

with you this afternoon. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, Senator Portman. I appreciate your 

comments. 

Ms. Clark, you will have 5 minutes for your oral statement. 

Please note that your entire written statement will be a part of the 

record. With that, you may begin. 
3 

1The prepared statement of Ms. Clark appears in the Appendix on page 14. 

TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE JULIA A. CLARK,1 NOMINATED TO BE GENERAL COUNSEL, FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY 

Ms. CLARK. Thank you, Chairman Tester, Ranking Member 

Portman. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to appear before 

you again and report on the accomplishments of the Office of the 

General Counsel since I was here in 2009. 

As Senator Portman mentioned, at that time when I was last 

here, the General Counsel’s position had been vacant for a prolonged period of time, resulting in a daunting backlog of complaint 

and appeals cases. At that time, we suffered a 40 percent reduction 

in the OGC staffing level. There were many vacancies. Our case 

processing performance was at a historic low. Our public education 

and information resources were virtually nonexistent. And, sadly, 

our employee morale was at an unacceptable low point. 

And while I identified these deficiencies as priorities when I was 

here in 2009 and I vowed to address them, I could not know then 

what I know now about OGC career employees’ capability and commitment to addressing these looming challenges. 

The Office of General Counsel Regional Office employees provide 

labor relations dispute resolution services directly to Federal employees, union representatives, and management representatives. 

They are the first point of contact. OGC employees handle over 90 

percent of all the cases filed at the FLRA. Their commitment to the 

OGC mission and tireless efforts were key to our success. They 

have my deep respect and appreciation and deserve the credit for 

OGC’s remarkable accomplishments over the past 5 years. 

To support them, when I came to the agency, I decided early to 

direct our limited hiring ability to front-line regional office vacancies. I also adopted recommendations from our career staff to 

streamline case processes and make more efficient use of technology. Most importantly, as Senator Portman reflected, we decided 

to integrate the alternative dispute resolution opportunities into all 

stages of our case processes. 

Our ADR processing has proven to be particularly effective and 

enduring and the results are measurable and positive. Our ULP 

case processing has improved by every measure. Our productivity 

is up 25 percent. Our timeliness improved from 49 percent to 68 

percent. At the same time, our ULP case filings increased over 25 

percent and now are holding steady at about 4,600 per year. 

Our employee morale improved quickly and dramatically, although there is always room for improvement, and I am looking 

forward to the opportunity to talk about what we can do to continue to improve. 

But, the Office of General Counsel is now the leading source of 

information regarding Federal unfair labor practice and representation case processing law and practice. We have comprehensive 

manuals, resources, case law outlines, policy guidance, and selfpaced tutorials that are available to the public 24/7. 

Also, our regional office employees provide classroom-style education and training on a regular basis and also in response to joint 

labor-management requests. Over the last 5 years, that staff, who 
4 

is also processing ULP cases and representation cases, managed to 

train 15,000 participants in training sessions nationwide. 

We have also accomplished what we have accomplished by 

leveraging resources through interagency agreements and collaborations to expand our education and ADR activities. Through a 

2010 partnership with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation 

Service (FMCS), we developed training to support Executive Order 

(EO) 13522, and in those training sessions, in an 18-month period, 

FMCS and our regional office employees were able to train another 

6,000 labor-management representatives in 150 sessions. We developed that training into an online tutorial for folks who were not 

able to attend our sessions. That is still available. 

We have continued our partnership with the FMCS to support 

the mission of the National Council on Federal Labor-Management 

Relations. We have also entered into shared resource agreements 

with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department 

of Defense (DOD) to develop online training that addresses every 

aspect of the law and practice that we are responsible for. The wonderful thing about these shared resource agreements is that we 

were able to partner with much larger agencies who had instructional designers and technological studios, and provide the content 

so that there can be a neutral presentation of the kinds of information that managers, union representatives, and employees need. In 

addition to that partnership, the Office of Personnel Management 

(OPM) has posted our tutorials on their Human Resources University, so they are available 24/7. 

We still have ongoing challenges, the ones mentioned by Senator 

Portman, such as succession planning. We are a very small agency. 

Our hiring ability has been very limited. So, the development of 

new leaders has been a priority and is a challenge, but one that 

we have developed a strategy to meet. 

Also, managing to continue to maintain a high level of productivity and efficiency and morale is a challenge that is ongoing and 

that we have to pay attention to all the time. 

Our management culture that we cultivate and nurture is one 

that vigilantly examines our processes, reexamines them, looks for 

potential improvements, but also continuously engages our frontline staff in this deliberative process. 

I believe that the Office of General Counsel is well positioned to 

sustain and enhance its contribution to productive, stable, and efficient labor-management relations throughout the government. It 

would be an honor and a privilege to continue to lead the Office 

of General Counsel as we meet these challenges and serve the public interest. 

Senator TESTER. Well, thank you for your testimony, Julia, and 

I am going to start my questioning with the standard questions, 

three in all, that we ask all nominees, then I will turn it over to 

Senator Portman for his. 

Is there anything that you are aware of in your background that 

might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the office to 

which you have been nominated? 

Ms. CLARK. No. 

Senator TESTER. Do you know of anything, personal or otherwise, 

that would in any way prevent you from fully and honorably dis-
5 

charging the responsibilities of the office to which you have been 

nominated? 

Ms. CLARK. No. 

Senator TESTER. Do you agree, without reservation, to respond to 

any reasonable summons to appear and testify before any duly constituted Committee of Congress if you are confirmed? 

Ms. CLARK. Yes. 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, and you may proceed, Senator 

Portman. 

Senator PORTMAN. Great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for 

your indulgence. 

You talked a little bit about this in your opening statement and 

you have more even in your written comments, but getting back to 

the case backlog issue and how you got about a thousand complaints and appeal cases resolved that were subject to the backlog 

when you took the job in 2009, you say that a number of management factors, you believe, contributed to reducing the backlog. You 

talk about strategic hiring decisions, streamlined case processes, 

and more effective use of technology. However, you note that the 

Authority’s alternative dispute resolution, ADR initiatives, and I 

am quoting you here, ‘‘have proven particularly effective and enduring.’’ 

As I said earlier, I am supportive of ADR, particularly in this 

context, and I just want to know a little bit about why you think 

it works. You made a decision in the office to implement this new 

policy. Was this something that you decided to do, or was it something that your predecessor put in place? What has your role been 

at the Office of General Counsel in authorizing these ADR activities? 

Ms. CLARK. The ADR activities that we engage in now required 

a change to our regulations. We reinstituted a regulatory policy 

that had been in place previously but was not in place at the time 

I came to the job. It was something that I intended to do and 

looked on very favorably, but consulted with career staff about 

their experience under those regulatory changes, both when ADR 

was permitted in the earliest stages of the processes and when it 

was prohibited, and I felt very clear that allowing for ADR early 

was the right thing to do and I authorized and directed that we go 

in that direction, which we did very quickly. 

Senator PORTMAN. How important was that in terms of getting 

the backlog out? 

Ms. CLARK. The backlog itself that occurred because of the General Counsel vacancy involved cases that had been fully investigated. Complaints had been authorized, but complaints had not 

been issued. And only by confirming and appointing a General 

Counsel could those cases go forward. ADR played a big role in resolving that backlog quickly, because at that point, the career staff 

was in the position to work with the agencies and the unions to resolve them. 

But the real difference in terms of instituting ADR as a regular 

part of our work was allowing for ADR to begin at the moment a 

case walks in our door, at the moment a charge is filed. A charge 

is the first point of contact in our regional offices. The regulations 

permitted our field agents to offer ADR services at the moment 
6 

when they begin investigating a case. The offer is voluntary. It 

makes clear to both the management and the union representatives 

that engaging in alternative dispute resolution is at their choice. 

But the offer is not a one-time deal. Not only was a regulatory 

change made, our agents were trained in ADR techniques and ADR 

techniques as they apply to our process so that while they are involved in the case process, investigating, taking witness statements, they are continuously open to and offering ADR services 

and looking to what the underlying dispute is, what are the interests of the parties, and how can we resolve whatever the concerns 

are at the earliest possible stage, and hopefully with the least 

amount of formal case processing. And many cases are resolved 

simply by a private settlement in this way. 

Senator PORTMAN. Do you think more training of labor representatives and management representatives would be helpful to encourage even more use of ADR? 

Ms. CLARK. I absolutely do. And, in fact, our partnership with 

the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service has been extremely 

helpful in this regard. That agency has a statutory responsibility 

with respect to collective bargaining in the Federal sector, and the 

Office of General Counsel started a partnership with them, partly 

in the context of the Executive Order, but since then, we do joint 

training with them on the front line, but we also work with the 

FMCS in interventions in particularly troubled relationships. But, 

we make a good team and that kind of training, I believe, is extremely helpful. 

Senator PORTMAN. That is good for the Committee to know. 

Again, I believe that it is very useful, not in every case, but more 

training, probably, to understand the consequences of going 

through it, and having the option to pull back if you feel like you 

need full-blown litigation. 

Ms. CLARK. Right. 

Senator PORTMAN. That helps. On the morale issue, looking at all 

this data, it is a little confusing to me, because you have this latest 

survey. Last year, 2013 finds a drop, actually, in employee satisfaction as it relates to what is called ‘‘performance-based rewards and 

advancement,’’ and that number was not very high to begin with. 

You had a 57.7 there. What would that be, a ‘‘C’’? 

Ms. CLARK. Yes. 

Senator PORTMAN. So, what accounts for that apparent disconnect? Otherwise, since 2009, you seem to have had a positive 

impact on the culture there. There have been improvements in employee satisfaction. And yet, ‘‘performance-based rewards and advancement’’ seems to be flat and going down a little bit. What do 

you think about that? What do you think it is due to? 

Ms. CLARK. I think there is a general issue throughout government, and I see it in real life at our agency, and that there has 

been a limit on the extent to which we can reward employees for 

their performance. 

In our agency, or the part that I am responsible for, for example, 

we have a performance management system that is quantifiable 

and objective in terms of productivity, timeliness, and quality. Our 

staff is measured that way. Our managers are measured on the ag-
7 

gregate performance of the people they supervise. It is all by the 

numbers. They do a great job. They exceed their goals. 

But, we have very limited ability to reward them for their exceptional service. And while thank yous help, it also helps to be rewarded through the performance award system and we have not 

been in a position to offer financial awards for some time. 

And in terms of advancement, I am hopeful that our survey will 

look better next year in that regard. We are in a position where 

we have done a lot of developmental activities, employee development, developing new leaders. So, I am hopeful that there will be 

some better results there. But, I do believe a real problem has been 

our inability to reward employees in a tangible way for their exceptional performance. 

Particularly in this case, our agency is much smaller than it was 

in the past, and while we have many new employees, most people 

remember a time when ratios of cases filed to agents were much 

lower, maybe even 50 percent lower than what an agent is expected 

to do now. So, they are under a lot of pressure and we have a limited ability to reward them for their exceptional performance under 

pressure. 

Senator PORTMAN. Yes. In your testimony, you talk about wanting to provide more advancement opportunities. I assume that 

means trying to manage the people you have more effectively—— 

Ms. CLARK. Yes. 

Senator PORTMAN [continuing]. To create some openings and to 

promote people who have shown through performance reviews that 

they are doing exceptional work. 

I would say the budget issues are going to be tough here on ev- erything, but Fiscal Year 2013, direct obligations: $23.4 million; 

Fiscal Year 2014, direct obligations estimated to be $25.5 million. 

Some agencies would die for that percentage increase. And I know 

that the personnel budget is huge—about 75 percent of your budget—but there are agencies that are actually freezing or reducing 

employee numbers and you are talking about a 14 percent increase 

and a 25 percent increase from staffing levels in 2009. I would like 

to ask one question and then I will turn it back to the Chairman. 

Thanks for your time. Do you think that is necessary and justifiable? 

Ms. CLARK. The budget we have now is absolutely necessary. It 

provides an opportunity for us to increase our staffing, which is one 

of the best ways we have to allow our employees a more manageable workload. 

For my part, the allocation that is provided to the Office of General Counsel, from the very beginning and continuing, will be directed toward hiring at the front line, hiring at the regional office 

level for field agents. I believe that is the right thing to do. In addition to that, we have been building a developmental process that 

allows for our front line agents to be trained, but also for our senior 

agents to develop their leadership potential and be in a position to 

take on the managers’ roles in those offices. 

But, I think, with respect to the funding, we have gotten by with 

a very limited staff and done as well as we have for the past 5 

years primarily because so many of our employees who had been 

with the agency for a long time, some from the very beginning— 
8 

hung in there and were in a very good position to make the system 

work, even by being understaffed. This increase allows us to rebuild our staffing to a level that hopefully will allow us to sustain 

this kind of performance into the future. 

And I do believe that the increase was warranted, particularly in 

light of the fact that we were so severely cut well before the budget 

cuts that occurred over the last several years. So, we have been restored, but probably to a level that is still below the level that most 

agencies are at now. 

Senator PORTMAN. I thank you for that answer. Mr. Chairman, 

I have no other questions for the nominee, but I will listen to yours 

we appreciate your service, Ms. Clark, since 2009, and we hope you 

will continue to focus on not just reducing the backlog, but improving the morale and making the agency work well for management 

and labor representatives. Thanks. 

Ms. CLARK. Thank you. 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, Senator Portman. 

Julia, first of all, I want to say, thank you for your service and 

I am very pleased of your willingness to serve another stretch in 

this job. And I hope to get you moving sooner than later through 

the pipeline. 

But, getting back to my statement, you have been in the position 

for 5 years. What makes you want to go back and do it again? 

Ms. CLARK. Five years goes by faster than you think, maybe, and 

I do not think it is just because of my young age. We have a lot 

to do, and I can say that in the past 5 years, we have just now gotten to a level of functioning so that we are not racing at a breakneck speed but can actually begin laying a foundation that will be 

solid enough to sustain this organization, this part of this organization, well into the future. We have great plans and much still to 

accomplish. 

To Senator Portman’s point, coming from the private sector before I took this job, I was and still am a very strong believer in the 

role of this agency in facilitating the parties that come to us and 

helping them resolve their differences and move on to do the public 

interest. There is more that we can do in that regard and I really 

would welcome the opportunity to continue to do it. 

Senator TESTER. Senator Portman talked about the backlog, and 

you have done a great job in reducing that backlog. Can you give 

me an idea on any initiatives you are working on at this point in 

time or plan to work on that will continue to improve the timeliness of management of cases? 

Ms. CLARK. In terms of timeliness, this is the highest priority for 

me and others in our agency. It is my view that resolving disputes 

quickly so that the parties can get back to their work is what needs 

to happen. 

Some of what we are doing in terms of timeliness is just pure scientific facts. We need to continue to move our resources to the front 

line because that is where it happens. We need to continue to train 

our workforce. We are also involved in some pilot programs to look 

at our case processes and find ways to move them along more 

quickly. We are developing initiatives. 

In fact, today, several employees that might have liked to be here 

just to see you and listen to you are not here because we are en-
9 

gaged in some intensive training of all of our employees, again, on 

alternative dispute resolution techniques, and in particular, the art 

and science of listening and finding resolutions that serve the public interest, but also train the people who come before us so that 

maybe they will be able to resolve their own problems the next 

time. 

In addition to that, we are developing our use of online meetings 

that will facilitate taking witness statements, negotiating settlements, prehearing conferences in real time. That saves a lot of time 

in terms of sending witness statements, affidavits to be signed, documents back and forth, and I think that will make some tremendous improvements, as well. 

Senator TESTER. Thank you. Can you talk a little bit about hiring and retention and what trends you have seen in these areas? 

Ms. CLARK. I think our agency has a tremendous retention rate. 

The people who come to this agency have a commitment and an 

understanding of what they do as being fundamental to good government. So, our retention rates are good. I think that we understand how the work gets done and who is really responsible for it. 

So, I think that has actually been one of our strongest points. 

Senator TESTER. How about transparency? What role does it play 

in your work? 

Ms. CLARK. Transparency—well, that has been also very important to the way I wanted to do business. All of our case handling 

manuals, every guidance, every process that our field agents follow 

are published and online in the most accessible format, hyperlinked 

to our statutes, our decisions, so that anyone who comes before our 

agency can follow along and understand what our agents are doing, 

the policies that we follow, and the way we exercise our judgment 

and discretion. 

Senator TESTER. Before coming to the FLRA, you spent your career as a trial attorney at the Department of Justice. How has this 

experience helped you in your role as General Counsel? 

Ms. CLARK. That was my first job out of law school, and I think 

the first thing I learned about government through being at the 

Department of Justice is the incredible responsibility, the incredible authority, and the incredible power of the Federal Government 

and what an enormous responsibility that is when you are put in 

the position of carrying out a law passed by Congress, and in particular, a prosecutorial function. The Justice Department was a tremendous training ground for a lawyer and I am really very fortunate to have had that experience and to be able to bring it to the 

role that I play now. 

Senator TESTER. And now you have spent 5 years as General 

Counsel. What lessons from that service will shape your job over 

your next tenure? 

Ms. CLARK. I think the most important lesson that I have 

learned as being General Counsel has been the importance that the 

civil service, that career staff play in the functioning of government 

and upholding the laws and the Constitution. The career staff at 

our agency are some of the most bright, dedicated, open, flexible, 

adaptable people I have ever run across, and their ability—many 

of them, having been there since the agency was created, working 

under every Administration since the agency was created—their 
10 

ability to come to me with well thought out plans, to answer the 

questions that I had and the questions I should have had, was just 

a remarkable experience and I will thoroughly enjoy working with 

them in the future. 

And the other important lesson that I wanted to reflect on is that 

while I had been a union representative as a labor lawyer for many 

years of my life, I had been a union member, I have been a management representative, but I think that I most fully appreciated 

the importance of a unionized workplace in terms of offering constructive and helpful information when I took this job. And I would 

like to say that the union at our agency has been incredibly influential in terms of helping me understand a direction, letting me 

know when I have made a mistake, and I have had that wonderful 

experience of deciding that it is not a sign of weakness to acknowledge a mistake and take a different direction. 

So, I would say those two things, the incredible career service 

and also the value of having an independent union in the workplace. 

Senator TESTER. And, finally, and we do hope that your confirmation will occur quickly, but if you could, as concise as you can, 

talk about what your short-term and long-term priorities are going 

to be for the FLRA over the next while that you are in this position. 

Ms. CLARK. All right. I think ongoing, both short-term and longterm: succession planning. Those wonderful career employees that 

I have been talking about, well, they are going to retire, and many 

of them soon. We have an employee development, leadership development program in place, and now it is not just ad hoc but it is 

a systematic program and it will be ongoing. 

The other longer-term priority is to reduce our case processing 

time. Right now, our performance time targets are 120 days. That 

is of fairly recent origin. That is the time target that was in place 

when I took this job. But for the most time in our history, the time 

targets in the Office of General Counsel were 90 days and the performance against that target was 85 percent. As I said earlier in 

my remarks, when I came to this job, we were only hitting the target, 120-day target, 49 percent of the time. With current staffing, 

we have been able to move up to 68 percent of the time. Yet, it is 

my firm belief that a 90-day time target is really what is in the 

best interest of the public. So, finding a way with the resources we 

have to reduce our time target to 90 days and to perform well 

against that target is the long-term priority. 

Senator TESTER. Senator Portman, do you have any further questions? 

Senator PORTMAN. [Shakes head no.] 

Senator TESTER. OK. I just want to thank you for your testimony. I want to thank you for your clarity in answering the questions. As I said when I opened up my questions, I certainly appreciate your commitment to public service and thank you for wanting 

to sign up again for this job. 

With that, Senator Portman, do you have any closing comments? 

Senator PORTMAN. No, just that we appreciate the opportunity to 

be here as surrogates of the Chair and Ranking Member of the full 

Committee. Our Subcommittee on the Efficiency and Effectiveness 
11 

of Federal Programs and the Federal Workforce, as you know, is 

very involved in the issue of management of the Federal workforce, 

so I think it is appropriate we are following these issues like the 

backlog issue. 

We appreciate your coming in today, and again, we appreciate 

your service since 2009. We hope you will be able to continue to 

make progress. As you said, there are some clear successes you 

have had in terms of clearing backlogs, but there is also plenty of 

work to be done—— 

Ms. CLARK. Yes. 

Senator PORTMAN [continuing]. Including keeping the morale up 

and ensuring we have, as you said earlier, the maximum opportunity for people to resolve their issues and get back to work. 

Ms. CLARK. Right. 

Senator PORTMAN. So, thank you, Ms. Clark. 

Ms. CLARK. Thank you. 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, Senator Portman. 

It is fair to say now that the hearing record will remain open for 

24 hours for any additional comments and for any questions that 

might be submitted for the record. 

With that, once again, we thank you, Julia, for your willingness 

to serve, and this hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 3:10 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 

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Æ