United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 

 

September 10, 2008 

Congressional Requesters 

Subject: NASA Workforce: Briefing on National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration’s Use of Term Appointments

Congress expanded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) ability 

to use term appointments to fill civil service positions in 2004. NASA sought this 

flexibility to ensure that it could hire and retain the workforce it desired. In a joint 

explanatory statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (Pub. L. 

No. 110-161), you asked us to review NASA’s use of term appointments for civil servant 

positions. We briefed the committees on the results of our review. This report 

summarizes that briefing, which is reprinted in full as an enclosure. As agreed to by the 

committees, this concludes our work performed under this mandate. 

Summary 

Since receiving its expanded human capital flexibilities, NASA has steadily increased its 

use of term appointments when hiring new employees. Subsequently, NASA has 

increased the number of conversions from term to career or career-conditional 

appointments. From 2003 through 2007, the majority of employees who separated from 

NASA voluntarily retired. Less than 1 percent separated because the employee’s 

appointment expired. NASA’s goal is to evolve to a science and engineering workforce 

that at a minimum is comprised of 15 percent term/temporary appointments by 2013. 

However, NASA centers are given the option to use term appointments for other 

positions. 

Background 

Over the past few years, GAO and others in the federal government have underscored the 

importance of human capital management and strategic workforce planning. Federal 

agencies, as a whole, face new and increasingly complex challenges in the 21st century 

and must transform their organizations to meet the challenges of long-term fiscal 

constraints, changing demographics, evolving governance models, and other factors. 

This involves developing a strategic approach to human capital management that 

integrates human capital efforts with their missions and program goals, which we have 

recently reported federal agencies typically lack. 

In response to an increased governmentwide focus on strategic human capital 

management, NASA has taken several steps to improve its human capital management. 

These include steps such as requesting and receiving additional human capital 

flexibilities through the NASA Flexibility Act of 2004 (Pub. L. No. 108-201) (Flexibility 

Page 1 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
Act) to help the agency compete successfully with the private sector in attracting and 

retaining employees and to reshape and redeploy its workforce to support its mission. 

Congress passed the Flexibility Act, which included a term appointment authority that 

was broader than that otherwise generally available to government agencies. In general, 

federal agencies may make term appointments for 1 to 4 years where the need for 

employee services is not permanent.1

 The Flexibility Act grants NASA an expanded term 

appointment authority that allows the agency to make term appointments for 1 to 6 years 

and also allows NASA to non-competitively convert employees from term to career or 

career-conditional appointments under certain conditions.2

 Reasons for making a term 

appointment include project work such as NASA’s science and exploration projects, 

scheduled abolishment of a position, reorganization, or uncertainty of future funding. 

According to NASA, such authority is particularly useful to NASA as it manages the 

agency’s transition from the Space Shuttle Program to a new generation of 

transportation vehicles. Other flexibilities granted NASA include recruitment, relocation 

and retention bonuses, as well as the creation of a Science and Technology Scholarship 

Program. 

Another human capital management tool that is available to all federal agencies is the 

reduction-in-force (RIF)3

 process, which federal agencies use to separate or demote 

employees for reasons such as lack of work, reorganization, shortage of funds, or the 

exercise of certain reemployment or restoration rights. NASA has stated that it will only 

use its RIF authority as a measure of last resort. However, NASA has been prohibited 

from conducting a RIF since 2005 when Congress included moratorium language in the 

NASA Authorization Act of 20054

 (Pub. L. No. 109-155). 

NASA’s Use of Term Appointments

Since passage of the Flexibility Act, NASA’s use of term appointments has steadily 

increased. We examined NASA’s demographic trends from fiscal years 2003 through 2007 

and found that term appointment hiring is increasing and surpassed full-time permanent 

hiring in fiscal year 2005 (see fig. 1). Currently, term appointments make up 8 percent of 

NASA’s total workforce, and range from 3 percent to 20 percent depending on the center. 

Overall, NASA has experienced an increase in hiring levels at the agency. 

The majority of NASA’s civil service workforce is made up of scientists and engineers. 

NASA saw a marked decrease in full-time permanent hiring for science and engineering 

 1

 5 C.F.R. Part 316 Subpart C (2008). 

2

 Permanent employees are generally hired into the federal government under a career-conditional appointment. A 

career-conditional employee must complete 3 years of substantially continuous service before becoming a full career 

employee. Career-conditional employees automatically become career employees upon completion of this service 

requirement.

3

 5 C.F.R. Part 351 (2008). 

4

 The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (Pub. L. No. 110-161) had the effect of extending a moratorium on RIFs 

that was included in the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 (Pub. L. No. 109-155). Specifically, the act states that “no 

funds shall be used to implement any Reduction in Force or other involuntary separations (except for cause) by NASA

prior to September 30, 2008.” 

Page 2 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
positions while significantly increasing term appointment hiring for science and 

engineering positions from fiscal years 2003 through 2007, which mirrors the overall 

workforce trends shown in figure 1. 

Figure 1: Trend of Full-time Permanent and Term Appointment New Hires

Source: GAO analysis of NASA data.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Term appointment

Full-time permanent

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Fiscal year

Number of new hires

The Flexibility Act grants NASA the ability to non-competitively convert term 

appointments to career or career-conditional appointments if certain conditions are met, 

such as 

• the current term appointment was made from a competitive announcement that 

stated the potential for conversion to a permanent appointment; 

• the term appointee completed at least 2 years of continuous service; and 

• the term appointee demonstrates good performance. 

Since the passage of the Flexibility Act, NASA’s conversion rates more than doubled 

from fiscal years 2005 through 2007 (see fig. 2), with Johnson Space Center accounting 

for the largest percentage of conversions when compared to other centers at NASA. 

Page 3 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
Figure 2: Number of Conversions from Term Appointment Each Fiscal Year

Fiscal year

Number of conversions

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Total conversions to permanent status

Conversion to career/career conditional 

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Source: NASA.

Note: Total Conversions to Permanent Status include Cooperative Education Program (co-op) 

conversions to career/career conditional appointments. 

On the other side, most employee separations from NASA consisted of full-time 

permanent employees from fiscal years 2003 through 2007. Over half of all separations 

were for voluntary retirement—less than 1 percent of all separations during that time 

were due to expired appointments that were not renewed. Term appointments 

accounted for only 4 percent of all employee separations, and appointees left for various 

reasons such as resignation, transfer to another agency, expired appointment, and 

termination during the probationary period. 

NASA has taken steps to fully integrate term employees with permanent employees in 

the NASA workforce. For example, policies that govern employee working conditions 

apply to all employees, regardless of term or permanent appointment. Furthermore, term 

employees are not identified in any way that separates them from their permanent 

coworkers. For example, according to NASA officials the badges of term and permanent 

employees are identical. Term employees receive the same benefits as permanent 

employees, such as coverage under Federal Employees Health Benefits, Federal 

Employees Group Life Insurance Programs, and Federal Employees Retirement System; 

annual and sick leave; and within-grade increases. Term employees are also covered by 

the same adverse action procedures as permanent employees as long as they have 

successfully completed their probationary period (which permanent employees must 

also complete). Further, term employees are allowed to apply for permanent positions 

Page 4 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
with NASA once they are eligible and when vacancies are advertised, and may be eligible 

for noncompetitive conversion to permanent appointment if certain criteria are met. 

NASA considers its term hiring authorities to be among the most important of its human 

resources strategies and believes that term appointments provide an attractive 

employment package for applicants, while still not burdening the agency with the 

obligations of permanent employees. NASA believes the agency needs to have a more 

flexible workforce to respond effectively to mission, programmatic, and budget changes 

as well as demographic and labor market fluctuations, and that the agency needs evolve 

to a more appropriate blend of permanent and nonpermanent civil servants. In light of 

this, NASA has set a goal for NASA centers to maintain a minimum of 15 percent 

term/temporary workforce for science and engineering positions by 2013 (not including 

students or Cooperative Education Program).5

 While the 15 percent goal is focused only 

on science and engineering positions, most centers target all hires for term 

appointments. NASA has committed to the Office of Management and Budget to increase 

its use of term appointments in order to increase its future ability to downsize its civil 

service workforce if necessary due to the changing nature of the agency’s work, program 

and project funding decreases, and/or termination of program or project work. NASA 

officials stated the agency’s options are limited for creating a flexible workforce given 

the prohibition on RIF and that using term appointments generally has not seemed to 

deter applicants. We are not making any recommendations in this report. 

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 

In written comments on the draft report, NASA generally agreed with the information 

presented and our conclusions. NASA also provided some observations on the report, 

which have been addressed in the report, as appropriate. NASA’s written comments are 

reprinted in enclosure II. 

Scope and Methodology

To assess NASA’s use of term appointments, we reviewed and analyzed criteria such as 

laws, regulations, requirements documents, and stakeholder reports as well as analyzed 

workforce data and identified trends. We also interviewed appropriate officials from 

NASA, including those within the Office of Human Capital Management, Office of 

General Counsel, Space Operations Mission Directorate, Exploration Systems Mission 

Directorate, and Kennedy Space Center; the International Federation of Professional and 

Technical Engineers; and the National Academy of Public Administration. We assessed 

the reliability of the data and determined that they were sufficiently reliable for the 

purposes of this report. For more information on how we conducted our review, please 

see the scope and methodology section in the enclosed briefing. 

 5

 NASA officials stated that the 15 percent goal was determined by taking into consideration information from worstcase staffing scenarios, a model used to predict the degree of workforce change at each center over the 5-year budget 

horizon, and prior experience with centers operating with term to permanent employee ratios relatively close to the 15

percent target. GAO did not validate the reliability of NASA’s model. 

Page 5 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
We conducted this performance audit from February 2008 to May 2008 in accordance 

with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we 

plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a 

reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We 

believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and 

conclusions based on our audit objectives. 

___ ___ ___ 

We are sending copies of this report to the NASA Administrator and other interested 

congressional committees. We will also make copies available to others upon request. In 

addition, the report will be available at no charge on GAO’s Web site at 

http://www.gao.gov. 

If you or your staff have any questions regarding this report, please contact me at (202) 

512-4841 or chaplainc@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional 

Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who

made contributions to this report are listed in enclosure III. 

Cristina T. Chaplain 

Director, Acquisition 

and Sourcing Management 

Enclosures - 3 

Page 6 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
List of Requesters 

The Honorable Barbara A. Mikulski 

Chairman 

The Honorable Richard C. Shelby 

Ranking Member 

Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, 

and Related Agencies 

Committee on Appropriations 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Alan B. Mollohan 

Chairman 

The Honorable Rodney P. Frelinghuysen 

Ranking Member 

Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, 

and Related Agencies 

Committee on Appropriations 

House of Representatives 

The Honorable Mark Udall 

Chairman 

The Honorable Tom Feeney 

Ranking Member 

Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics 

Committee on Science and Technology 

House of Representatives 

Page 7 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 8 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Briefing to Congressional Requesters

NASA’s Use of Term Appointments
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

2

Mandate and Objective

• Mandate

• A joint explanatory statement accompanying the 

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 requires that 

GAO review NASA’s use of term appointments for civil 

service positions

• Objective

• Identify trends regarding NASA’s use of term

appointments for civil service positions

• Reporting

• Plan to issue a product summarizing our findings

during the late summer

Page 9 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 10 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

3

Scope and Methodology

To assess NASA’s view on the use of term appointments, 

interviewed officials from 

• NASA, including those within the:

• Office of Human Capital Management 

• Office of General Counsel 

• Space Operations Mission Directorate

• Exploration Systems Mission Directorate

• Kennedy Space Center

• International Federation of Professional and Technical 

Engineers

• The National Academy of Public Administration
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 11 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

4

Scope and Methodology (Continued)

• Reviewed and analyzed laws, guidance, requirements

documents, internal NASA studies and reports, prior GAO 

reports, and other issued reports related to NASA’s workforce.

• Examined NASA’s workforce strategy and human capital plans to

determine current and future plans for the use of term

appointments and NASA’s efforts in workforce transition.

• Analyzed data from NASA’s Workforce Information Cubes for 

NASA (WICN), which is a workforce reporting and monitoring 

system. Specifically, to assess NASA’s workforce new hire and 

separation demographics, we analyzed WICN data on NASA 

employees from fiscal year 2003 through 2007. We limited our 

analysis to full time permanent, part time permanent, temporary,

term appointment, and intern-fellow employee data. 
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 12 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

5

Scope and Methodology (Continued)

• We assessed the reliability of the NASA workforce data by (1)

reviewing existing information about the data and the system that 

produced them, (2) interviewing agency officials knowledgeable 

about the data, (3) reviewing past data reliability assessments.

We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the 

purposes of this engagement.

• We conducted this performance audit from February 2008 to May 

2008, in accordance with generally accepted government auditing 

standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the 

audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a

reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our 

audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides

a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our

audit objectives. 
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 13 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

6

Term Appointments Available GovernmentWide

• U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (5 C.F.R. Part 316 (2008))

• Civil service regulations for temporary and term employment by 

agencies

• Agencies may make term appointments for 1 – 4 years where the

need for employee services is not permanent

• Reasons for making a term appointment include 

• project work, 

• extraordinary workload, 

• scheduled abolishment,

• reorganization, 

• uncertainty of future funding
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 14 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

7

NASA Flexibility Act of 2004,

Pub. L. No. 108-201

• Grants NASA the ability to make term appointments for 1 – 6

years

• Allows NASA to convert employees from term to permanent

appointment without competition under certain conditions

• Requires NASA to submit a workforce plan to include identifying 

and addressing areas of critical need

• Critical need is a specific and important requirement that 

NASA cannot fill due to an inability to fill positions or

employees do not possess the requisite skills

• Other flexibilities include –

• Recruitment, relocation and retention bonuses

• Creation of Science and Technology Scholarship Program

• Limited appointments to SES positions
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 15 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

8

NASA Overall Workforce Trends

from Fiscal Years 2003 – 2007

• Overall, NASA experienced an increase in hiring levels from

fiscal years 2003 – 2007, with a peak in fiscal year 2004 

• NASA also experienced an increase in separations from the 

agency, with a peak in fiscal year 2005 

• Science and engineering as well as professional 

administrative staff made up the majority of all new hires

and separations

• Aerospace engineering and general engineering represent

the top 2 occupations for hiring and separations

• Majority of new hires are between the ages of 30 – 49 

• Majority separations are between the ages of 50 – 69
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 16 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

9

Overall Number of NASA New Hires

and Separations by Fiscal Year

Source: GAO analysis of NASA data
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 17 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

10

NASA’s Use of Term Appointments

• Since passage of the NASA Flexibility Act of 2004, NASA’s

use of term appointments has increased.

• Goal of 15 percent of science and engineering positions

• Use for other positions determined by Centers

• Term appointments seen by NASA management as a tool to

manage the workforce due to the moratorium on the use of

reduction-in-force

• NASA officials stated that NASA is using its term

appointment authority consistent with the purposes for 

which it originally requested this flexibility

• NASA's guidance implementing the NASA Flexibility Act of 

2004 lists similar reasons for making a term appointment as

the Code of Federal Regulations

10
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 18 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

11

NASA’s Use of Term Appointments

(Continued)

• Some Centers base decisions to hire terms on analysis of

the position, such as the recruitment market or uncertain

work volume

• Center officials stated that using term appointments

generally does not deter applicants

• Barriers to hiring terms include hiring ceilings and market

competitiveness

11
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 19 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

12

Conversion of Term Appointments

to Permanent Status

• Term employees allowed to apply for permanent positions

with NASA once they are eligible and vacancies are

advertised

• Term employees appointed under the NASA Flexibility Act 

of 2004 may be noncompetitively converted to a permanent

competitive service appointment if specific criteria met, such

as: 

• Current term appointment made from a competitive

announcement that stated the potential for conversion to 

a permanent appointment

• Completed at least 2 years of continuous service

• Employee demonstrates good performance

12
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 20 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

13

Trend of Full-Time Permanent and Term

Appointment New Hires

Source: GAO analysis of NASA data
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 21 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

14

Percentage of NASA Term Appointment 

Workforce by Center

Source: NASA
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 22 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

15

Number of Full-Time Permanent and Term Appointment

Science and Engineering and Professional Administrative 

New Hires each Fiscal Year

Full Time Permanent Term Appointment

Source: GAO analysis of NASA data
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 23 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

16

Number of Conversions from Term Appointment 

Each Fiscal Year

Source: NASA

Note: Total Conversions to Permanent Status include Cooperative Education Program (co-op) conversions to career/career conditional appointments.
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 24 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

17

Conversions from Term Appointment to

Permanent by Center

Source: NASA
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 25 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

18

NASA Workforce Separations by Type of 

Appointment for Fiscal Year 2003 - 2007

Source: GAO analysis of NASA data
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 26 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

19

Trends of NASA Workforce Separations by

Reasons Given for each Fiscal Year

Source: GAO analysis of NASA data
Enclosure I: Briefing Slides 

Page 27 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

20

Summary

• NASA uses its term appointment authority to have 

a more scalable workforce

• Using term appointments to manage the workforce 

due to reduction-in-force limitations

• Use of term appointments for the science and 

engineering workforce is increasing

• Rate of conversions from term to permanent is also 

increasing

• Majority of separations due to retirement
Enc

Adm

losure II: Comments from the National Aeronautics and Space 

inistration 

Page 28 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 

Enclosure II: Comments from the National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration 
Enclosure II: Comments from the National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration 

Page 29 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
Enclosure III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 

Enclosure III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 

GAO Contact 

Cristina Chaplain, (202) 512-4859 or chaplainc@gao.gov 

Acknowledgments 

In addition to the contact named above, Jim Morrison, Assistant Director; M. Greg 

Campbell; Amber Lopez; Jean McSween; Jose Ramos; and Alyssa Weir made key 

contributions to this report. 

(120716) 

Page 30 GAO-08-920R NASA’s Use of Term Appointments 
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