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ENSURING DIVERSITY AT THE SENIOR LEVELS OF

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THE U.S.

POSTAL SERVICE

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL WORKFORCE,

POSTAL SERVICE, AND THE DISTRICT

OF COLUMBIA

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT

AND GOVERNMENT REFORM

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

MAY 10, 2007

Serial No. 110–46

Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html

http://www.house.gov/reform

(II)

COMMITTEE ON OVERSISGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM

HENRY A. WAXMAN, California, Chairman

TOM LANTOS, California

EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York

PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri

DIANE E. WATSON, California

STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York

JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky

BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of

Columbia

BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota

JIM COOPER, Tennessee

CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland

PAUL W. HODES, New Hampshire

CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut

JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland

PETER WELCH, Vermont

TOM DAVIS, Virginia

DAN BURTON, Indiana

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana

TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania

CHRIS CANNON, Utah

JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee

MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio

DARRELL E. ISSA, California

KENNY MARCHANT, Texas

LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia

PATRICK T. MCHENRY, North Carolina

VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina

BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California

BILL SALI, Idaho

JIM JORDAN, Ohio

PHIL SCHILIRO, Chief of Staff

PHIL BARNETT, Staff Director

EARLEY GREEN, Chief Clerk

DAVID MARIN, Minority Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL WORKFORCE, POSTAL SERVICE, AND THE DISTRICT OF

COLUMBIA

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of

Columbia

JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio, Chairman

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri

STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts

KENNY MARCHANT, Texas

JOHN M. MCHUGH, NEW YORK

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

DARRELL E. ISSA, California

——— ———

TANIA SHAND, Staff Director

(III)

C O N T E N T S

Page

Hearing held on May 10, 2007 ............................................................................... 1

Statement of:

Brown, William, president, African American Federal Executives Association; Rhonda Trent, president, Federally Employed Women; Gilbert

Sandate, Senior Policy Associate, National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives; Darlene Young, president, Blacks in Government; and

William Bransford, general counsel, Senior Executives Association ........ 113

Bransford, William .................................................................................... 142

Brown, William .......................................................................................... 113

Sandate, Gilbert ........................................................................................ 129

Trent, Rhonda ............................................................................................ 120

Young, Darlene .......................................................................................... 137

Lovelace, Gail, Chief Human Capital Officer, General Services Administration; Vickers Meadows, Chief Administration Officer, U.S. Patent

and Trademark Office; Reginald Wells, Deputy Commissioner, Social

Security Administration; and Susan LaChance, vice president of employee development and diversity, U.S. Postal Service ............................. 71

LaChance, Susan ....................................................................................... 97

Lovelace, Gail ............................................................................................ 71

Meadows, Vickers ...................................................................................... 81

Wells, Reginald .......................................................................................... 88

Stalcup, George H., Director, Strategic Issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office; Nancy Kichak, Associate Director, Strategic Human Resources Policy Division, Office of Personnel Management; and Carlton

Hadden, Director, Office of Federal Operations, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission .................................................................... 5

Hadden, Carlton ........................................................................................ 50

Kichak, Nancy ........................................................................................... 45

Stalcup, George H. .................................................................................... 5

Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:

Bransford, William, general counsel, Senior Executives Association, prepared statement of ........................................................................................ 144

Brown, William, president, African American Federal Executives Association, prepared statement of .......................................................................... 116

Cummings, Hon. Elijah E., a Representative in Congress from the State

of Maryland, prepared statement of ............................................................ 151

Davis, Hon. Danny K., a Representative in Congress from the State

of Illinois, prepared statement of ................................................................ 3

Hadden, Carlton, Director, Office of Federal Operations, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:

Followup question and response .............................................................. 67

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 52

Kichak, Nancy, Associate Director, Strategic Human Resources Policy

Division, Office of Personnel Management, prepared statement of .......... 47

LaChance, Susan, vice president of employee development and diversity,

U.S. Postal Service, prepared statement of ................................................ 99

Lovelace, Gail, Chief Human Capital Officer, General Services Administration, prepared statement of ..................................................................... 73

Meadows, Vickers, Chief Administration Officer, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, prepared statement of ............................................................ 83

Sandate, Gilbert, Senior Policy Associate, National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives, prepared statement of ...................................... 131

Stalcup, George H., Director, Strategic Issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office, prepared statement of ........................................................... 7

Page

IV

Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by—Continued

Trent, Rhonda, president, Federally Employed Women, prepared statement of ........................................................................................................... 122

Wells, Reginald, Deputy Commissioner, Social Security Administration,

prepared statement of ................................................................................... 90

Young, Darlene, president, Blacks in Government, prepared statement

of ..................................................................................................................... 139

(1)

ENSURING DIVERSITY AT THE SENIOR LEVELS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND

THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE

THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL WORKFORCE, POSTAL

SERVICE, AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM,

Washington, DC.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:58 p.m. in room

2247, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Danny K. Davis (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives Davis of Illinois, Cummings, Clay, and

Sarbanes.

Staff present: Tania Shand, staff director; Caleb Gilchrist, professional staff member; Lori Hayman, counsel; Cecelia Morton, clerk;

Mason Alinger, minority senior professional staff member; and Alex

Cooper, minority professional staff member.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. The subcommittee will come to order.

If this was on a Sunday I would say that this was the day that

the Lord has made, because basically there are so many things

going on at the moment and so many different things taking place.

We have two subcommittee hearings taking place in the Committee

on Oversight and Government Reform, Domestic Policy, as well as

this one, and about the same Members are on both subcommittees,

so obviously some of our Members are going to be there, some of

our Members are going to be here, plus we have activity taking

place on the floor. Some of our people are also going to be there.

So you might see people coming in and out. It is not an indication

of their lack of interest in the subject matter, or in your testimony;

it is just that this is one of those working Congresses that is doing

a great deal of work all at the same time.

Let me thank our witnesses for being here. We appreciate the

fact that you have come. We will just go right into the testimony

in a minute once I swear in the witnesses. First, I would like to

introduce them, though.

Panel one, Mr. George Stalcup is the Director of Strategic Issues

at the Government Accountability Office and he oversees a range

of reviews of management issues across Government, including a

variety of human capital areas. Mr. Stalcup also oversees GAO’s

high risk program and issuance of GAO’s biennial update to its

high risk list. He has over 37 years of Federal service, 33 of which

have been at the GAO.

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Ms. Nancy Kichak was named Associate Director for the Human

Resources Policy Division for the Office of Personnel Management

in September 2005, and in this position she leads the design, development, and implementation of innovative, flexible, merit-based

human resource policies.

Mr. Carlton Hadden is a member of the Senior Executive Service

as the Director of the Office of Federal Operations, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Office is responsible for

the Federal Government’s equal employment opportunity EEO appellate function, and also provides oversight for the Governmentwide EEO complaint adjudication and affirmative employment

functions. In 1999, he was appointed Director of the Office of Federal Operations. Since his appointment, he has initiated sweeping

changes, which have been instrumental in improving the operation

of EEO programs in the Federal Government.

That will be our first panel of witnesses. I was really hoping that

my ranking member would have come in, and he hasn’t managed

to do so yet.

I am going to read an opening statement, after which I am going

to swear in the witnesses and we will proceed.

Ranking Member Marchant, members of the subcommittee, and

hearing witnesses, welcome to the subcommittee’s hearing on ensuring diversity in the Senior Executive Services [SES], and the

Postal Service. Today’s hearing is being held as a followup to a

hearing that I requested in 2003 to look at diversity within the

SES. The hearing was prompted by a GAO study requested by me

and other members of the former Committee on Government Reform. The study found a lack of diversity in the SES and maintained that, unless some affirmative action measures were taken,

once members of the predominately white male SES retired, they

would be replaced, for the most part, by white women.

Today’s hearing will look at current diversity trends in the SES

and the Postal Career Executive Services. This hearing will help

the subcommittee move forward on the very important issue of diversifying, the highest and most influential ranks of the Federal

work force, the SES, and the Postal Service. This issue is important because the Federal work force should be as diverse as the

people it serves. It is simply good business and, of course, it is good

government.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Danny K. Davis follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. I am now going to move to swear in the

witnesses. If you would, stand and raise your right hands.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. The record will show that each witness

answered in the affirmative. Thank you very much.

Of course, your entire statement will appear in the record. The

green light indicates that you have 5 minutes to summarize your

statement. The yellow light means that your time is running down

and you have only 1 minute remaining to complete your statement.

The red light means that your time is expired.

We will begin with Mr. Stalcup. Thank you very much, and welcome.

STATEMENTS OF GEORGE H. STALCUP, DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC ISSUES, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE;

NANCY KICHAK, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC HUMAN

RESOURCES POLICY DIVISION, OFFICE OF PERSONNEL

MANAGEMENT; AND CARLTON HADDEN, DIRECTOR, OFFICE

OF FEDERAL OPERATIONS, U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION

STATEMENT OF GEORGE H. STALCUP

Mr. STALCUP. Thank you, Chairman Davis. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this hearing on diversity at the senior

levels of the Federal Government and the U.S. Postal Service.

In 2003, we issued a report and looked at diversity in the SES

as of October 2000. We also estimated by race, ethnicity, and gender the number on board who would leave Government service by

the end of fiscal year 2007. Finally, we projected what the profile

of the SES would be at the end of 2007, if the employment trends

did not change. We made similar estimates at the GS–15 and GS–

14 levels, which are viewed by most as the primary developmental

pools for the SES.

In 2000, we reported on diversity in the Postal Service, the Postal Career Executive Service, as well as the other levels within the

Postal Service, as of September 1999.

Now, while we have not done any recent work to update those

previous reports, you asked us to provide data on diversity for this

hearing on both the SES and the PCES, as well as, those groups

that serve as the primary developmental pools for each and from

which the vast majority of potential successors to those positions

would come. That data is contained in the tables within my written

statement.

For the career SES and the related GS–15s and 14s, developmental pools, the data are showing for October 2000, which was

drawn from our previous report, and from September 2006, which

we extracted from OPM’s central personnel data file. There are

Government-wide statistics, and there are statistics for each of the

24 CFO Act agencies.

For the PCES and the related development pool, data are showing for September 1999, drawn from our previous report, and again

from September 2006, and it was provided to us by the Postal Service. There are Service-wide statistics for officers, executives, and

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the developmental pool of Executive Administration Service levels

22 and above.

The data show that as of September 2006, the overall representation of both women and minorities increased both in the SES and

the PCES since our reports. In the SES the percentage of women

increased from 23.6 to 28.4, and the percentage of minorities from

13.8 to 15.9. In the PCES the percentage of women moved from

20.1 to 28.6, and the percentage of minorities from 25.3 to 29.1.

Increases also occurred in both the minorities and women within

the developmental pools for both the SES and the PCES. It is important to point out, however, that the changes over this time and

the percentages as of last September vary by group. While notable

increases have come about in certain agencies or groups, in some

areas percentages have not increased or have gone down.

Again, we have not done work to identify or analyze the factors

that account for these changes, but we look forward to working

with the subcommittee on these important issues as we move forward.

As we have just testified, the Federal Government is facing new

and more complex challenges in the 21st century because of longterm fiscal constraints, changing demographics, and other factors.

The SES and the PCES generally represent the most senior and experienced segments of those work forces that are critical to providing the strategic leadership needed to effectively meet these challenges. Having a diverse core of senior executives can be an organizational strength that contributes to the achievement of results by

bringing a wider variety of perspectives and approaches to bear on

policy development and implementation, strategic planning, problem solving, and decisionmaking.

But retirement eligibility is typically high in the executive ranks.

OPM has estimated that 90 percent of the Federal executives will

be retirement eligible within 10 years, and the Postal Service expects nearly half of its executives to, in fact, retire within the next

5 years.

Major departures could result in loss of leadership, institutional

knowledge, and expertise within these leadership ranks. This underscores the need for effective succession planning. Succession

planning is also tied to the opportunity to effect diversity through

new appointments. Having a good insight into the Government’s

senior leadership and developmental pools, including the factors

that are affecting representation today and factors such as retirements that will have an effect in the near future, are important to

ensuring that we maintain the needed high quality and inclusive

work force.

This concludes my prepared remarks. We look forward to working with the subcommittee on these important issues, and I would

be pleased to answer any questions you may have.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Stalcup follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much. We will proceed

right to Ms. Kichak.

STATEMENT OF NANCY KICHAK

Ms. KICHAK. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me here today

to discuss diversity in the leadership ranks of the Federal Government, including the Senior Executive Service.

The mission of the Office of Personnel Management is to ensure

that the Federal Government has an effective civilian work force.

President Bush and all of us at OPM wholeheartedly share your

goal of building a Federal work force that draws on the strengths

of America’s diversity. Under the leadership of Director Linda

Springer, OPM has expanded its efforts to reach the broadest possible pool of applicants for Federal jobs. We are committed to the

merit system principles and ensuring that all Americans receive

equal access to Federal employment opportunity, not only in the

Senior Executive Service but at all levels of the Federal work force.

OPM has been vigorous in its efforts to promote Federal employment widely, including in areas with diverse populations of potential applicants. Our outreach has included Federal career days and

job fairs at universities and community colleges which were targeted for their potential to help us build a highly qualified applicant pool that draws on America’s diversity.

OPM launched a television ad campaign to spark interest in Federal employment. We aired these ads in targeted markets where we

believe there is likely to be an ample supply of individuals who

have the qualification, skills, and experience the Federal Government needs in its work force. The ads, entitled, What Did You Do

at Your Job Today, have had a strong impact in raising awareness

of and generating interest in the array of important and rewarding

careers in the Federal Government. In addition to helping recruit

new talent, the ads have showcased the impressive variety of public services provided by Federal employees every day.

These outreach initiatives are designed to address the increasing

numbers of Federal employees becoming eligible for retirement in

the next few years. Succession planning is a crucial element in the

development of a strong cadre of senior executives and candidate

development programs are a recommended part of agency leadership succession plans.

These programs must address the executive core qualifications,

which include a desirable competency for fostering an inclusive

workplace where diversity and individual differences are valued.

OPM initiated a Federal candidate development program in 2005

to provide opportunities to a broad audience for development and

possible placement in the SES. We plan to administer the program

again and will introduce efficiencies while still reaching out to the

broadest audience.

There is also a diversity component in our broader assessment of

agencies’ human capital management practices. Agencies receive either red, yellow, or green scores based on the standards for success

described in OPM’s human capital assessment and accountability

framework. Diversity is an important element in this analysis.

Overall, agencies have scored well on these items by developing

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strategies for sustaining diversity and implementing outreach and

other activities designed to broaden their applicant pools.

Under section 7201 of Title V of the U.S. Code, OPM is required

to report to Congress on an annual basis with respect to minority

representation in the Federal Government in relation to the overall

civilian labor force. Our most recent report, which was submitted

to Congress and to your subcommittee in January of this year, was

submitted in January of this year.

The report shows that the Federal Government continues to be

a leader in employing minorities. Specifically, the latest data shows

overall increases in minority representation between 2005 and

2006, with minority groups better represented in the Federal work

force than the civilian labor force.

In conclusion, I want to assure you that OPM will continue its

efforts to ensure our Government has an effective civilian work

force that is highly qualified, citizen centered, and results driven.

We must continue to focus on the need to develop and recruit a

senior executive corps and the employees they lead from all sources

of potential talent and to continue to draw on the strength of our

Nation’s broad diversity.

I will be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Kichak follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much. We will go right

to Mr. Hadden.

STATEMENT OF CARLTON HADDEN

Mr. HADDEN. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the

subcommittee. I appreciate this opportunity to appear before you

on behalf of Naomi C. Earp, Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission. I am Carlton Hadden, Director of

EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations.

When I last testified before this committee in 2003, I announced

the roll-out of EEOC’s new guidance for Federal agencies, which we

call EEO-MD–715. This directive strongly emphasizes that equality

of opportunity for all in the Federal workplace is key to attracting,

developing, and retaining top quality employees. The directive requires agencies to systematically and regularly examine their employment policies and practices, to identify and remove barriers to

free and open workplace competition. Plans for addressing barriers

must be developed by agencies, and progress toward removing

those barriers is monitored by EEOC.

MD–715 is an important tool to assist agencies in changing past

trends in order to promote greater diversity in the SES. Federal

agencies must ensure that its employees, including those at the

senior level, are drawn from all segments of society after fair and

open competition. Selection, advancement, and all other employment decisions must be based solely on merit to ensure that all receive equal opportunity and to maximize the probability of selecting those with the best skills to do the job.

In its 2003 study, GAO found that the vast majority of replacements for departing SES members come from the ranks of Federal

employees of the GS–15 and 14 levels; therefore, EEOC believes

that it will be critical for agencies to pay special attention to potential barriers to entry into those successor pools of GS–15s and 14s,

with the focus on those positions that typically lead to senior-level

management.

In addition, potential barriers should be examined in training

and other development opportunities that increase qualifications

for future SES positions. Also, as future SES positions may be

filled by candidates moving from the private industry rather than

the Federal ranks, potential barriers in areas like executive recruitment efforts should also be examined.

Each year EEOC thoroughly reviews agencies’ self-analysis of

their work forces and offers critical comments and technical assistance to agencies to help them to identify barriers, including those

in the SES.

EEOC staff has noticed that this tenor of assistance requested

and questions asked by agencies has changed since the introduction of 715. As agencies have become more comfortable with the

concept and practice of work force self-analysis, inquiries have

moved from simple counting and numbers questions to more sophisticated questions on statistical analysis and barrier removal.

As the questions have become more sophisticated, the answers to

removing barriers have become more creative.

We will not rest until agencies fully identify all those barriers in

their workplaces and eliminate them to create an inclusive work

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environment in which the talents and energies of all individuals

are valued, respected, and fully utilized.

One of the EEOC’s latest initiatives is the EEOC fellows program. This program will provide an opportunity for Federal employees, university professors, and graduate students interested in

equal opportunity, public administration, economics, employment

law, statistics, and other relevant fields to participate in research

and projects related to eliminating discrimination in the Federal

Government.

EEOC plans to use the fellows program to enhance our analytical

ability by tapping into the network of experts and academicians. As

an example, EEOC plans to recruit labor economists to the fellows

program to provide more in-depth analysis of MD–715 work force

data, such as discerning trends and other longitudinal studies. This

will assist EEOC in identifying trends and issues such as the SES

issue that we are discussing today, and will assist EEOC in taking

a proactive role in preventing discrimination and increasing diversity.

Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Hadden follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank all three of you very much.

Our normal process is to have rounds of 5 minutes of questions.

Of course, given the fact that nobody is here but me, I may end

up taking somebody else’s round, but let me begin.

Mr. Hadden, let me ask you, to what extent are females and minorities represented on the EEOC’s Executive Review Board which

makes the decisions on promotions to career SES, and what can be

done to make sure that diverse representations on these boards

exist Government-wide?

Mr. HADDEN. Mr. Chairman, I want to try to understand the

question. You are talking about EEOC’s internal operations?

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Yes, on the Executive Review Board at

the EEOC.

Mr. HADDEN. I am going to have to get back to you on that. I

can talk about the PRB Board, but I am not sure about the ERB

Board.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. All right. So if you could get that answer

for us, we would appreciate it.

[The information referred to follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. You mentioned barrier removal. Could

you share with us what some of the barriers are regarding participation of women and minorities in the SES that agencies have

identified in their management directive 715 submissions, and

what steps have agencies reported taking to address these barriers?

Mr. HADDEN. There is a wide range of barriers which agencies

have identified as barriers for women and for minorities in the

SES, and what we ask agencies to do is to look at their individual

situation. For example, a barrier could constitute how announcements are certainly shared, but also, more critically, how developmental opportunities are announced. Looking at positions in the 15

and 14 level, how opportunities to develop into those SES positions

are announced. That is one barrier that agencies have identified.

And then in my testimony I identified agency specifically some

of the examples that we have encountered and successes that agencies have encountered in addressing those barriers.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Does the EEO have any plans to make

any recommendations regarding removal or regarding better dissemination of information?

Mr. HADDEN. What we are planning is we are planning to publish a report of best practices and share with the Federal community what agencies are doing to implement 715, and, in particular,

you know, one area that we need and will focus on are looking at

the SES levels. That will be available on our website.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much.

Ms. Kichak, let me ask you how does the OPM assess the diversity of the SES service at each agency and the efforts of that agency to improve?

Ms. KICHAK. Our role, particularly through our score card, is to

see that the agencies have policies in place or they have programs

in place that will seek to find candidates across a diverse pool. We

are looking for strong recruiting. So we are not evaluating the SES

makeup along these lines; what we are evaluating is their programs to attract people to the Federal work force, including the

SES.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. This is kind of a long set of data, that

I am going to mention, but according to the central personnel data

file, as of September 2006, the percentage of women in the career

SES Government-wide was 28.4 percent and the percentage of minorities was 15.9 percent. Of these, African Americans constituted

8.6 percent, Hispanics 3.6 percent, Asian American/Pacific Islanders 2.3 percent, and American Indian/Alaska Natives 1.3 percent.

While the representation of women has increased by about 5 percent and minorities by about 2 percent since 2000, the representation of African Americans and American Indian/Alaska Natives in

the career SES has remained largely the same, and the representation of Asian American/Pacific Islanders has decreased.

Has OPM seen any particular need? One of the criticisms of affirmative action programs and the ideas around them is that they

have significantly, in some instances, benefited white women, but

other minority groups have not benefited to the same extent. Do

you see any particular needs with the other groups that are coming

up short?

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Ms. KICHAK. First of all, our data from the CPF, but it was a different time period, shows growth in total for minorities in the SES

over the last year, so I don’t think our data is contradicting each

other. There has been growth. But the minority representation in

the SES is certainly lower than in the civilian labor force.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. I don’t know how you separate the question of minorities, but the growth among African American, Alaska

Natives/Pacific Islanders has been slower or lower than that for

white women?

Ms. KICHAK. As far as women are concerned, there is a larger

percentage of women in the work force to draw from. It is close to

50 percent. So there is a bigger pool to pull from. Then, if you start

to look at other minorities such as African Americans, that ratio

in the civilian labor force, I believe, is around 10.5 percent. I don’t

have the numbers exactly. But it is harder to increase when you

have a smaller pool to deal from proportionately. But those are

numbers.

We feel that it is very important to keep reaching out. We have

looked at the representation, as has been discussed by both of the

witnesses today, in the 13 to 15 range, which is where our SESers

come from. We feel that it is important to continue to reach out

and to broaden the pool of people so that we have more folks to

choose from in the SES. That is why we work very hard in succession planning to get more people competent to step into these jobs.

That is why we have the outreach programs that we do, the ads,

the awareness, so that we can create this big applicant pool and

continue to draw from the broad diversity and bring additional people into the SES.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. I think that makes a great deal of sense.

You are saying that one of the ways to increase the opportunities

for growth at the level of the SES is to increase the pool of applicants below.

Ms. KICHAK. Right.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Therefore, you have more people in the

pool.

Ms. KICHAK. Yes.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Well, thank you very much.

Since Mr. Sarbanes has joined us, I am going to ask if he has

some questions. I would just yield to him at this moment.

Mr. SARBANES. I have no questions at this time, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. All right. Then I have one additional

question to Mr. Stalcup.

In the research that you performed for the Government Accountability Office, have you come across any incentive programs across

the Federal Government that encourage senior managers or hold

managers accountable for diversity in any kind of way?

Mr. STALCUP. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We have done a lot of work that has provided a broad focus on

the whole initiative of holding leaders accountable. We have identified some examples at agencies where these efforts are underway,

but we have not done as much work or much work at all on the

results of those efforts.

We did issue a report in 2005 that discussed leading diversity

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ity, and specifically by that we meant that leaders are being held

responsible for diversity by linking their performance and assessment and compensation, to the progress on the diversity initiatives

within their organization. An example in that report talked about

how NIH was making progress along those lines.

In one other report in 2004 we talked about the experiences of

four agencies in trying to inject more accountability at the senior

levels in terms of performance assessments and in terms of compensation. Those agencies involved were NASA, HHS, the Center

for Disease Control, and Education.

Again, we have had a lot to say about the importance of the initiative that you base your question on. We have not done much in

terms of how well agencies or how effectively those managers are,

in fact, being held accountable in the end.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much. I want to thank

all three of you. You have been very helpful, and we certainly appreciate your coming and sharing testimony with the subcommittee. Thank you.

We will now move to the second panel and ask Ms. Gail

Lovelace, Ms. Vickers Meadows, Dr. Reginald Wells, and Ms. Susan

LaChance if you would come and take a seat.

Ms. Gail Lovelace was named the Federal Government’s first

Chief People Officer on September 1, 1998. In 2003, she was appointed to be the GSA’s Chief Human Capital Officer in accordance

with the HCO Act of 2002. In these capacities, Ms. Lovelace is responsible for agency-wide human capital management and has

three closely interrelated programs. She leads the agency-wide development and implementation of GSA’s human capital strategic

plan, provides a full range of human resources advice and services

to all GSA organizations, and provides human resources information technology support for a number of other Federal agencies,

boards, and commissions, in addition to providing the same support

within GSA.

Ms. Vickers Meadows serves as Chief Administrative Officer

since May 2005 for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a performance-based agency within the Department of Commerce. As

the CAO, Ms. Meadows is responsible for the USPTO’s human capital management, civil rights, and corporate services programs. Ms.

Meadows is leading the effort to build strong human capital strategies and programs for the USPTO, focusing on expanding tele-work

programs, internal communications, hiring, recruitment, and retention.

Dr. Reginald Wells was named Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security Administration [SSA], Office of Human Resources effective July 15, 2002, after serving short tenures as Deputy Association Commissioner for Disability Program Policy and Senior Advisor in the Office of Disability and Income Security Programs. Dr.

Wells also serves as the Chief Human Capital Officer for SSA. In

his capacity as Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources, Dr.

Wells oversees a staff complement of 400 employees, with an operating budget of $100 million.

Ms. Susan LaChance was named vice president of Employee Development and Diversity for the U.S. Postal Service in May 2005.

In this role, Ms. LaChance reports to the Chief Human Resources

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Officer and executive vice president and is responsible for employee

and leadership development, succession planning, equal opportunity, equal employment opportunity, and diversity initiatives.

Let me thank all four of you for being here. Of course, it is the

policy that all witnesses are sworn in, so if you would stand and

raise your right hands.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. The record will show that each witness

answered in the affirmative.

Let me thank you very much. Of course, your entire statement

will be in the record. We ask that you summarize your presentation

into 5 minutes. We all know the meaning of the green light simply

means go, the yellow light means you are just about there, and, of

course, the red light means stop.

We will begin with Ms. Lovelace.

Thank you all so much.

STATEMENTS OF GAIL LOVELACE, CHIEF HUMAN CAPITAL OFFICER, GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION; VICKERS

MEADOWS, CHIEF ADMINISTRATION OFFICER, U.S. PATENT

AND TRADEMARK OFFICE; REGINALD WELLS, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION; AND

SUSAN LACHANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSITY, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE

STATEMENT OF GAIL LOVELACE

Ms. LOVELACE. Good afternoon, Chairman Davis and members of

the subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you

today on behalf of the General Services Administration.

Since its establishment in 1949, GSA has served as the Federal

Government’s premier acquisition agency. During the 1970’s, almost 40,000 employees worked at GSA. Today, we are an organization of 12,000 that relies on a highly competent and engaged work

force to accomplish its mission. We strive to ensure that all GSA

employees receive training and development, performance feedback, leadership support, and guidance in a supportive work environment to foster and engage a highly productive work force. That

is evident in the fact that GSA was just recently named as one of

the best places to work in the Federal Government for the third

consecutive rating period.

In their 2003 report, GAO warned of the impacts of an aging

work force, particularly in the SES. Specifically, they stated that

more than half of the career SES members that were employed on

October 2000 will have left service by October 1, 2007. In this report they also estimated by the start of fiscal year 2008 GSA’s percentage of women members in the SES would increase from 28.6

to 32.9, and that the percentage of racial and ethnic minorities

would decrease from 14.3 to 12.9.

As of April 15th of this year, the numbers estimated by GAO for

GSA are close. We currently have 83 members on board, 27 percent

female and 13 percent minority.

The GAO report further suggested that the wave of near-term retirements and other attrition will provide the Federal Government

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cur with this finding, particularly as we face 31 current vacancies,

or 27 percent of our current SES work force, and we expect that

SES members will continue to leave the agency.

In response to the President’s management agenda and the strategic management of human capital, GSA has established a comprehensive human capital strategic plan that provides a wellrounded framework to evaluate and continually improve human

capital programs, processes, and operations.

Improving work force recruitment, executive leadership, and diversity are three of our seven human capital goals. It is GSA’s goal

to ensure that we have a diverse work force that reflects society,

not only in the SES but across the agency. We do believe our work

force is diverse. Woman comprise 49 percent of the work force. Our

work force representation among all groups is high in comparison

to the civilian labor force statistics, except for our Hispanic work

force.

In terms of the SES, GSA has allocated 114 positions. As of April

15th, 83 of them are filled, leaving 31 vacancies. Currently, 27 percent are women, 13 percent are minority.

GSA’s ability to hire new members was impacted by changes in

the organization, much of which is outlined in the statement for

the record.

At the same time, GSA has been undergoing significant organizational change. All of this has impacted our ability to fill some of

our positions.

During the current fiscal year, our efforts in increasing diversity

within the SES have been nominally successful, as 36 percent of

our new hires have been female and 9 percent minority.

At the GS–14 and 15 level, the pool of potential women and minority SES candidates has remained relatively stable over the last

few years. Currently, 41 percent of the employees at the grade 14

are women and 29 percent are minority. At the GS–15 level, 39

percent are women and 20 percent are minority.

GSA has focused a lot of its attention on the development of our

staff and not just on our outreach efforts. We have undertaken a

leadership institute where we are, in fact, giving advantages to our

employees to be prepared to move into the SES positions. Of our

graduates of these various programs, 89 percent are still employed

with GSA, 42 percent have received promotions, 20 percent of those

graduates are minorities, and 46 percent are female.

I am pleased to be here with you this afternoon to share with you

some of the information related to GSA. While we represent a very

small proportion of the Government-wide total of employees, we believe it is our strength of the diverse work force that will ensure

our continued success.

Thank you. I would be happy to answer any questions.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Lovelace follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much. We will go directly

to Ms. Meadows.

STATEMENT OF VICKERS MEADOWS

Ms. MEADOWS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the

subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to testify on diversity

of senior management at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The PTO mission is to foster innovation and competitiveness by

providing high-quality and timely examination of patent and trademark applications, guide domestic and international intellectual

property policy, and deliver intellectual property information and

education worldwide.

Fiscal year 2006 was a record-breaking year for PTO. Our patent

organization broke virtually every record tracked by GPRA by improving quality, efficiency, e-filing, hiring, training, and hoteling.

Currently, there are 49 Senior Executive Service members, 16

are women, 4 are black, 2 are Asian. With more than 9,000 employees projected by the end of this fiscal year and plans to hire an additional 8,400 patent examiners over the next 6 years, we expect

our history of expanding diversity to continue.

The vast majority of our SES and top-level management positions at PTO are highly specialized. Of more than 8,000 current

employees, 577 are attorneys, 5,846 are engineers and scientists.

Our executive members in the patent business area manage a work

force composed largely of scientists and engineers. Those in the

trademark area direct the staff of trademark attorneys.

In addition to skills normally required for upper-level management, our executives must possess both the technical knowledge required to direct a professional work force and a high degree of specialized knowledge about intricate, often complex, examination

rules, regulations, and procedures. Much of the specialized knowledge can only be acquired through years of experience at PTO. As

a result, virtually all of our patent and trademark management positions are filled from within the PTO ranks; however, there are a

few SES positions, like my own, that are in the financial, administration, or information technology field.

Diversity is likely to increase in PTO’s SES ranks because of the

underlying diversity of the pool of patent and trademark professionals from which many of our future senior executives are likely

to be drawn. Our current work force presents a recruitment pool

of over 2,200 professionals at the GS–14 and 15 levels, most of

whom occupy supervisory or management positions. Of this total,

963 are women, 387 are black, 817 are Asian, 85 are Hispanic, and

16 are Native American.

In order to enhance their qualifications for SES membership,

many patent and trademark professionals have taken advantage of

managerial, supervisory, leadership, and executive management

training, and developmental assignments offered or funded by

PTO.

PTO also has a robust recruitment program. We participated in

27 events in 2006 where recruitment of minorities and women was

the focus. For example, we visited Howard University, Morgan

State University, Ohio State University, MIT, and Florida State

University. In many cases, organizations like the National Society

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for Black Engineers, Society for Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the American Indian Science and

Engineering Society were our hosts.

Our priority is always to select the best-qualified person, regardless of race, national origin, sex, or religion for each position that

we fill. Because we have so many talented women and minorities

in our senior supervisory and managerial ranks, we are confident

that many of them will rise to the SES level.

In addition, we will continue to conduct the broadest possible

searches for our financial, administrative, and information technology SES vacancies.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to extend an invitation to

you and all subcommittee members to attend PTO’s 12th Annual

Community Day Celebration scheduled for June 7th this year. Held

on our Alexandria campus grounds, this county fair type event

highlights the diversity of our work force with ethnic foods, games,

educational resources, fashion show, and parade. The PTO managers primarily staff this agency-wide event with virtually all

PTO’s employees participating. We hope that you will be able to

come as a witness to this display of openness and inclusion in our

agency.

I appreciate this opportunity to share information with the subcommittee regarding PTO’s commitment to promote diversity in its

work force. If you have any questions, I would be pleased to answer

them.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Meadows follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much. We will go to Dr.

Wells.

STATEMENT OF REGINALD WELLS

Mr. WELLS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. On behalf of Social Security Commissioner Michael

Astrue, I appreciate this opportunity to share with you the Social

Security Administration’s efforts to achieve diversity in the agency’s Senior Executive Service Corps. I am Reginald Wells and I am

SSA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources and Chief

Human Capital Officer.

SSA is a diverse organization that mirrors the public we serve.

In order to fulfill our mission and provide the kind of service that

the public expects, we must understand its needs. This takes highperforming, well-trained, and well-equipped staff, from the frontline office workers to the highest executives. We believe that having a diverse work force that reflects the demographics of the people we serve increases the public’s confidence in the agency’s ability

to meet its needs. It also enhances the agency’s capability to conduct business in the most effective and efficient manner.

SSA’s work force consists of about 62,000 employees working in

1,500 installations nationwide. Of our employees, 70 percent are

women. Of our work force, 47 percent are members of a minority

group, compared to 31.8 percent in the rest of Government and

27.4 percent of the national civilian labor force. I am especially

pleased to report that SSA’s minority representation for all groups

exceeds their representation in the national civilian labor force.

Like many Government agencies, we continue to face the realities of an aging work force. The average age of an SSA employee

is 47, so there is an inevitable wave of retirements that must be

addressed. SSA retirements are expected to peak between 2008 and

2010, with nearly 22 percent of the work force electing to retire.

This translates to approximately 2,700 employees per year. And 39

percent of overall staff and 66 percent of SES and GS–14s and 15s

will be eligible for retirement by 2010. We project that we will need

to replace nearly 43 percent of the work force by 2015.

At SSA we have viewed these realities as an opportunity to expand diversity of our work force. Our priority is always to select

the best-qualified individual, regardless of race, national origin,

sex, or religion. Since 2002, we have hired 18,328 employees. Of

those, more than 57 percent were women, 6.6 percent were individuals with disabilities, 27.6 percent were African Americans, 16.5

percent were Hispanics, 7.3 percent were Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and 1.2 percent were American Indians and Alaska

Natives.

While having a diverse work force at the service delivery level is

important, we believe that it is equally important to have diversity

throughout the management and executive ranks. In spite of the

large number of retirements among our SES corps, we have generally been able to maintain our level of minority representation in

the SES.

I must tell you that, since the beginning of the current fiscal

year, we have lost 14 executives, 43 percent of whom were minorities and 36 percent of whom were women. Fortunately, SSA is well

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positioned to replenish the leadership ranks with minority candidates. As a result of our aggressive recruiting efforts and comprehensive developmental programs, I believe we will be able to

maintain a highly qualified and diverse work force.

OPM has recognized our leadership programs as among the best

practices in Government, and our programs are continually

benchmarked and mirrored by other agencies. The programs are

structured and managed to emphasize development of recognized

Government-wide leadership competencies. While SSA has a long

and successful tradition of developing leadership from within, we

also attract executive talent from other public and private sector

sources.

In closing, let me emphasize SSA’s pride in its work force and

proactive model we have adopted to promote diversity among employees. We are firmly committed to continuing our efforts to build

a work force that reflects the face of our Nation. We believe that

our pride in our work force and our commitment to diversity is part

of the reason that SSA was recently named one of the top ten

places to work in Government.

The business case for diversity in our work force is convincing.

We believe that for these reasons we are in a position to maintain

a highly qualified and diverse work force at all levels of the agency.

Thank you. I will be glad to answer any questions you may have.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Wells follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Dr. Wells.

We are going to be able to get Ms. LaChance in before we have

to run off and vote.

STATEMENT OF SUSAN LACHANCE

Ms. LACHANCE. Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, Chairman Davis and members of the subcommittee. I am Susan

LaChance, vice president of employee development and diversity

for the U.S. Postal Service, and it is my pleasure to be here today

to share with you the Postal Service’s commitment to a diverse and

inclusive work force.

The diversity in the Postal Service reflects the diversity of America, and for us diversity includes not only individual’s race, color,

national origin, and sex, but also other attributes such as the background, education, life experiences, and perspectives.

We recognize that only with a work force that represents America and the communities that we serve can we effectively support

the needs of our customers in the 21st century.

Today the Postal Service is one of the leading employers of minorities and women. We have 26 percent of our executives who are

minorities and 29 percent are women. We have seen increases in

the participation rates of females and black males in our officer

corps, and increases in the participation rates of females, black females, Asian American, Pacific Islanders, and Hispanic males in

our executive ranks. However, we recognize we face key challenges

in recruiting, retaining, and developing a diverse work force in the

future.

Our diversity professionals are key partners in this effort. They

cast a recruiting network as wide as possible by participating in

minority job fairs, actively recruiting veterans and military personnel, and recruiting at colleges and universities. Additionally, they

provide one-on-one sessions with employees interested in development. They hold career awareness conferences and workshops to

help employees prepare job applications and fine-tune their interviewing skills. And, most importantly, they are integral partners in

career development and succession planning.

The Postal Service has developed a whole career approach to

learning, leadership development, and talent management. The advanced leadership program seeks to develop high-performing employees with a desire and a potential to assume future leadership

roles. Our executive development program is designed to reinforce

our executive competency model. It builds on leading best practices

and provides participants with coaching and mentoring by our senior officers.

Our corporate succession planning process identifies high-potential employees for executive positions and provides tailored development. This standardized process is open to self-nomination and reflects our commitment to inclusiveness.

We realize that our development programs need to reach further

down into our organization in order to identify talent for our leadership pipeline. We are doing this through our EAS leadership development process. Known as ELD, it helps create a pool of qualified employees ready to fill future managerial and leadership positions competitively.

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The Postal Service has always had a strong culture of developing

employees from within. Out of our 40 officers, 21 began as craft

employees, while another 4 began their careers in one of our structured development programs. Perhaps our Postmaster General,

Jack Potter, best illustrates the effectiveness of this approach to

developing postal employees. Jack joined the Postal Service as a

clerk in New York. He served as our Chief Operating Officer, Vice

President of Labor Relations, and in a number of other senior positions.

Delores Killette is another example. Ms. Killette has held a number of managerial positions in the D.C. metro and Baltimore district, and she was that 39th Postmaster of Washington. She is now

our consumer advocate and vice president of consumer affairs.

For more than 200 years the Postal Service has provided individuals from a variety of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds

with the opportunity of earning a living, supporting their families,

and developing their careers, and serving their country. We proudly continue this tradition.

I will be very pleased to answer any questions of the committee.

[The prepared statement of Ms. LaChance follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Well, thank you all so very much. I also

want to thank the Members for their patience and indulgence.

It is my understanding that we have five votes, the first of which

is a 15-minute vote and then the others will be 5-minute votes,

which means that we are probably going to be gone for at least 40

minutes. So let me thank you all so much and, Members, thank

you for being here. We have to run off and vote.

[Recess.]

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. The committee is back in session.

We had a little intrigue. Somebody wanted to have a secret vote.

We haven’t figured out what that one was about, but somebody

wanted to clear everybody out of the House except the Members so

that we could discuss something in secret. Fortunately, more people decided that they didn’t want to do that than those who did.

Let me just thank you, though, for your patience and for still

being here.

I will begin with a few questions that I have.

Ms. Lovelace, let me start with you. The number of career SES

at GSA has decreased from 84 in 2000 to 71 in 2006. Are additional

changes in the number of career SES expected over the next several years? And, if so, how might this affect diversity in the career

SES?

Ms. LOVELACE. Well, we don’t expect a chance in the number of

SESers we have, but we expect that people will turn over in those

positions. You may know that our positions are actually allocated

to us from OPM and there is a certain number that are allocated

as non-career, some as career. Those numbers are not changing, as

best I know right now, so right now our challenge is keeping those

jobs filled with qualified people to carry out the mission.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. And does the GSA have a candidate development program?

Ms. LOVELACE. We don’t have a candidate development program,

per se. We have something called an advanced leadership development program, which is similar, but you just don’t get a certain

qualification that OPM stamps on people that are in formal candidate development programs.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. And so that is the reason that you don’t

feel the need to have a formal program? I mean, you have a similar

program?

Ms. LOVELACE. We have a similar program. Because our numbers are so small, we didn’t want to make that kind of investment

into a candidate development program, but it is so similar we

might as well go on ahead and do it.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. I am just sort of assuming, then, that

there really is not, in the estimation of the agency, a need because

of the numbers and also because of the experiences that you are

having relative to progress that is being made?

Ms. LOVELACE. We think we are making good progress in our

programs to develop people for these leadership positions. We have

a good cross mix of people that we believe we are preparing to fill

many of the jobs that we have.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much.

Let me go to Ms. Meadows.

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Ms. Meadows, the Patent and Trademark Office has been a performance based organization. I guess people called them PBOs for

a few years. Of course there is controversy around performance

based activity. Could you tell us how the status has, if at all, affected work force diversity within the agency?

Ms. MEADOWS. Mr. Chairman, I would say that it has probably

enhanced work force diversity, and certainly awareness, through

our performance appraisal programs at the USPTO. We are holding

our executives much more accountable to results. Diversity is a

part of the leadership component to our performance appraisal

plans, and I think, because we are more results oriented under our

performance based status, that our executives are held more accountable.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Some agencies have mentoring programs

to prepare mid-level employees for possible future executive status

by pairing them with mentors who can provide advice and guidance. Does the PTO have such a program?

Ms. MEADOWS. We do have a mentoring program in our patent

corps, but that is more geared toward the patent examining process. We are in the process of developing a leadership development

program at the Patent and Trademark Office which will include aspiring leaders at the 9 to 11 level, then go on to the executive leadership program at the mid-manager level, and all the way up to a

senior executive program. We are looking to put together our own

SES candidate development program.

We have had plans to do that in the past. There are a lot of

training opportunities at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for

our managers and our future leaders, but we want to formalize a

program, and right now we have the resources to do that and are

actively engaged with a contractor to develop a program for our office.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Do you know how many minorities and

women are involved in the mentoring program, I mean, how many

are actually being mentored?

Ms. MEADOWS. No, sir. In the existing mentoring program?

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Yes.

Ms. MEADOWS. Well, no, sir, I don’t know that number.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Dr. Wells, let me ask you, central personnel data file as of September 2006, the percentage of women in the

career SES at the Social Security Administration was 39.6, and the

percentage of minorities was 29.9. Of these, African Americans

made up 21.5 percent, Hispanics 7.7 percent, Asian American/Pacific Islanders none, and American Indian/Alaska Natives 0.7 percent. To what extent do these representation levels represent significant progress in recent years, and what might be needed to increase these numbers?

Mr. WELLS. Well, Mr. Chairman, I think I guess the first thing

I would say is that we are, like a lot of agencies, struggling under

the retirement wave to hold our numbers where they are. I think

we have been successful as an organization because we do put so

much attention into tracking our diversity and working through

our recruitment campaigns to make sure that we always have a

very rich applicant pool to choose from.

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In terms of what would need to be done to improve that situation

that you described, I think we have actually been doing it. We are

fortunate enough as an organization to have some well-defined career development programs and we do operate a Senior Executive

Service candidate development program.

But we also have a very rich applicant pool at the GS–15 and

14 levels which, of course, are the feeders for those people, at least

within our organization, that we would consider for Senior Executive positions.

All of those groups are showing increases over where we were in

2003, so, while we are just holding our own with regard to our Senior Executive corps and, as I mentioned, we have a fair number of

vacancies right now, mainly because of the retirement wave but

also we are still working through the transition from Commissioner

Barnhart to Commissioner Astrue, and during that kind of transition it takes a while for the new Commissioner to come in and sort

of get a sense for what the needs are and then actually move to

fill those. But we believe that there will be a lot of applicants, either through our Senior Executive Service candidate development

program or our GS–15 cadre. All categories are showing increases

over where we have been. So I think we feel like we are postured

well to replenish the ranks and probably even exceed where we

were in 2003.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Recognizing that all of us are concerned

about the number of retirements and people reaching the age

where I guess they won’t have to work, is there a serious succession planning program or effort underway at GSA?

Mr. WELLS. I am sure GSA, too. But at SSA absolutely. In fact,

what I was going to say is that the Office of Personnel Management, as part of the President’s management agenda, has really encouraged and actually required agencies to be doing more in the

way of formal succession planning and succession management,

and so at Social Security we are very much engaged in that.

We have been pretty gratified that our field structure in particular, those regional offices that we have around the country, have

been really excited about this and are doing some pretty impressive

things in terms of assessing what their needs are going to be and

then taking a look at what the potential talent is at the regional

level and beyond and really setting the stage for, I think, what will

be our ability to continue to replenish our ranks with qualified minority candidates.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. And you are a serious large agency——

Mr. WELLS. We are.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS [continuing]. In terms of the number of

people that you employ.

Mr. WELLS. We are 62,000 strong.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Yes. And so you have no responsibility for

what anybody else does, but do you think that your agency perhaps

could be looked at by others as not necessarily a model but certainly something that they might look at to see how it is done?

Mr. WELLS. I tend to think of us as engaging and practicing a

lot of very promising approaches to these kinds of human capital

issues, and we always welcome other agencies or even private orgaVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:53 Apr 29, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00114 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\41852.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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nizations, for that matter, benchmarking some of the things that

we do.

I do think we try really hard to strategically manage our human

capital, and I think there has been, I think, really good foresight

in the leadership of the organization. As I always say, necessity is

the mother of invention, and I think the leadership at SSA, over

time, has been real concerned about the ability to always have sufficient numbers of workers, first of all, but also the composition of

that work force, because we do serve the American public and you

want your work force to be as much a mirror of that public as it

can be.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much.

Ms. LaChance, how does the U.S. Postal Service, not necessarily

being what we would call a Federal agency, but a pseudo, in a

sense, how does the Postal Service monitor the diversity of its

workplace?

Ms. LACHANCE. Chairman, while we are not necessarily considered a Federal agency following all of OPM’s rules, we are required

to follow the guidelines as set forth by the EEOC in MD–715, and

that requires us to really look at the diversity of our work force

overall, as well as to evaluate all of our personnel practices and

employment practices to ensure that we have nothing that would

get in the way for fair and equal treatment and an inclusive workplace.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Succession planning, I think everybody

recognizes to an extent the need for it. How important does the

Postal Service view this area as being, and what is being done to

prepare for future management personnel?

Ms. LACHANCE. The Postal Service has actually had succession

planning for a number of years, and one of the things that we have

done really has been look constantly back at the practices of succession planning, trying to improve it.

Many years ago we had what we called a closed succession planning process whereby individuals didn’t know whether or not they

were being considered as a succesioner. In around 2003 we went

to an open succession planning process where it kind of enforces

our whole philosophy of inclusion, and individuals are allowed to

make application and make it be known that they are interested

in taking on additional responsibilities.

The second piece of that is that we have really focused in going

beyond just having a name on a list to really looking at individuals

that have skills and competency gaps and working on individualized development plans to assist them to be the best when an opportunity would be considered, come up for them.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. And I guess my last question is: to what

extent does the Postal Service actually devote resources to diversity

initiatives? I mean, does it really put money into initiatives to develop programs that are going to help move forth the desired results?

Ms. LACHANCE. Chairman, I would describe our focus on diversity initiatives to be perhaps three-fold. One would be the focus in

on resources in general, and by resources I would call that people.

We have diversity development specialists who we really rely on

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quarters and area offices, that assist us in getting the message out.

For us, inclusion means making people know that the opportunity

exists, and awareness is critical, so the resource is there to get that

message out.

The other piece as far as resources, I would call resources time

and effort. Our senior officers participate in an awful lot of activities that go on, both with what we call our affinity groups—under

our Heritage Coalition we have the Hispanic Organization of Postal

Employees, the African American Postal Employees Organization,

as well as Asian American. Our officers and our managers participate in activities that they sponsor to create awareness among

their membership.

We also put a lot of time and effort and dollars throughout the

Nation in what we call career awareness conferences, assisting our

own employees to be better prepared and know what opportunities

are available.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Well thank you all so very much. Again,

I really appreciate your patience and the fact that you were able

to wait until we returned from voting. I appreciate your participation. Thank you very much.

Ms. LACHANCE. Thank you.

Ms. MEADOWS. Thank you.

Mr. WELLS. Thank you.

Ms. LACHANCE. Thank you.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. And, of course, our last group, the real

troopers. Let me introduce our last panel, panel three.

Mr. William Bill Brown has served as national president of the

African American Federal Executive Association Inc. since its

founding in 2002. AAFEA promotes the professional development

and advancement of African Americans into and within the senior

levels of the U.S. Government. It sponsors an annual executive

leadership and training conference and advocates for programs,

policies, practices, and processes that promote career-enhancing opportunities for African Americans. Membership consists of active

and retired Federal employees in grades GS–13 through the SES.

Ms. Rhonda Trent is the current president of Federally Employed

Women. Federally Employed Women is an organization that works

as an advocacy group to improve the status of women employed by

the Federal Government and by the District of Columbia Government. Ms. Trent is a contracting officer assigned to the Joint Strike

Fighter Program in Crystal City, VA. Rhonda Trent has long been

active in the FEW, holding chapter, regional, and National offices.

Mr. Gilbert Sandate is a senior policy associate with the National

Association of Hispanic Federal Executives. Mr. Sandate is the

former Director, Office of Workforce Diversity for the Library of

Congress, Washington, DC. In this capacity he served as the Library’s senior expert on work force diversity, equal employment opportunity, alternative dispute resolution, and ADA accommodation

matters. He retired from the Federal Service in June 2006, as a

member of the Career Senior Executive Service after a distinguished 34-year Government career.

Ms. Darlene Young is the current president of the National Association of Blacks in Government. Ms. Young was elected to office

in January 2005 and was re-elected to a second term in January

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2007. Blacks in Government was organized in 1975 and incorporated as a nonprofit organization under the District of Columbia

jurisdiction in 1976. BIG has been a National response to the need

for African Americans in public service to organize around issues

of mutual concern and use their collective strength to confront

workplace and community issues. Ms. Young is currently employed

at the U.S. Department of State as a computer specialist.

Last, but not least in any way, is Mr. William Bransford. He is

currently the general counsel and lobbyist for the Senior Executives Association. Mr. Bransford is a partner in the law firm of

Shaw, Bransford, Veilleux and Roth, P.C., where he has practiced

since 1983. His practice is concentrated on the representation of

Federal executives, managers, and employees before the U.S. District Courts, the Merit System Protection Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Office of Special Counsel,

Offices of Inspector General, and with offices that adjudicate security clearances.

Let me thank all of you.

As is our custom of this committee and all of our committees, we

swear in the witnesses.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. The record will show that each witness

answered in the affirmative.

We thank you so very much, again, for staying and for being

here.

Your entire statement is in the record, and so if you would summarize in 5 minutes we would appreciate that. Of course, the green

light indicates 5 minutes, the yellow light means your time is running down, 1 minute, and the red light means that we have finished.

Mr. Brown, would you begin?

STATEMENTS OF WILLIAM BROWN, PRESIDENT, AFRICAN

AMERICAN FEDERAL EXECUTIVES ASSOCIATION; RHONDA

TRENT, PRESIDENT, FEDERALLY EMPLOYED WOMEN; GILBERT SANDATE, SENIOR POLICY ASSOCIATE, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HISPANIC FEDERAL EXECUTIVES; DARLENE

YOUNG, PRESIDENT, BLACKS IN GOVERNMENT; AND WILLIAM BRANSFORD, GENERAL COUNSEL, SENIOR EXECUTIVES ASSOCIATION

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, subcommittee members, and staff.

As you mentioned, I am president of the African American Federal Executive Association, Inc. AAFEA was founded in 2002 by

myself and three other members of the Senior Executive Service.

We have one purpose: the professional development and advancement of African Americans into the senior executive levels of Government.

We have held three national conferences and training workshops

attended by over 550 Federal employees. At these training events,

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seled and mentored all the African Americans seeking SES positions.

We also use these conferences to obtain further insight into many

of the challenges facing African Americans as they strive to compete for SES positions.

With that as a backdrop, I would like to comment on SES diversity in the Federal Government. Currently, there are 6,100 SES positions in the Federal Government. Only 200, or 3.2 percent of

these positions, are occupied by African Americans. This appalling

statistic has remained constant for the last seven or 8 years, despite increased emphasis on training, temporary assignments, and

other initiatives.

These statistics clearly support the position our organization and

myself, in particular, articulated in 2003 during a Congressional

hearing, that the reason our Federal work force is not adequately

diversified is not because of lack of training, but due to flaws in

the selection process.

Many of our members have accepted temporary assignments,

moved their families across country, and in some cases outside the

country, obtained advanced degrees at their own expense, while

others have had their education supported by their agency, and

gone the extra mile in hopes of advancing to the next level of Federal service, only to be denied that opportunity by selecting officials.

Over the next 10 years, approximately 89 percent of the Federal

work force is expected to retire. AAFEA recommends the following

steps be taken so that the resulting replacement work force will

represent the mosaic of America:

One, we recommend that this subcommittee champion legislation

mandating that, for positions in grades GS–14, 15, and SES, Federal agencies must use panels comprised of three people to screen

and select all individuals. At least one member of each panel would

be required to be a minority. The panel would be required to provide written justification for their recommendation, and the agency

head would have to approve the selection. This process will cause

selecting officials to take diversity seriously, and it will hold agency

heads accountable.

Two, we recommend that this subcommittee task the Government Accountability Office with conducting a formal, detailed study

on diversity in Federal agencies by grade, ethnicity, and age. Current OPM reports group all minorities in grades 14, 15, and SES

together. This presents a distorted view of diversity and makes it

impossible to determine makeup or progress by ethnicity. We need

an accurate baseline to measure progress.

Three, we recommend that you pass legislation requiring all temporary assignments or details exceeding 120 days be filled in the

same manner as permanent positions. Too often we hear of individuals being pre-positioned for promotion by being temporarily detailed to a vacancy, gaining competitive advantage over other possible candidates.

Four, we recommend OPM’s candidate development program be

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cants applied for 20 slots, making chances of being selected difficult

to impossible.

Five, our final recommendation is about reward and recognition.

We recommend establishment of an annual Federal SES diversity

award to be presented to the Federal agency that achieved the

most diverse SES work force over the past year. This would encourage and promote diversity and reward and recognize agencies that

take steps to increase diversity in their senior ranks.

Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the opportunity to appear before

this subcommittee. I would be happy to answer any questions.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Brown follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Mr. Brown.

We will next go to Ms. Trent.

STATEMENT OF RHONDA TRENT

Ms. TRENT. Thank you so much. Federally Employed Women,

FEW, very much appreciates the opportunity to participate in this

important hearing on behalf of the 1.2 million women employed in

the Federal Government and military. We thank Chairman Danny

Davis and the other legislators serving on this subcommittee for inviting us today.

Progress in diversity: we are happy to see that between 1992 and

2003 women made progress in moving into the SES, moving up to

26.2 percent of total SES employees. Further, the representation of

women at the higher general schedule grades and at senior pay levels increase. However, we would suggest that these numbers

should move higher to better reflect the percentage of women and

all minorities employed in the Federal Government overall.

As of December 2005, women represented 47.1 percent of the

Federal work force, yet, according to the December OPM statistics,

December 2006, women only make up 28.7 percent of the career

SES and 34.8 percent of all employees in grades 13 through 15. Increasing the ranks of women in the SES by 2 percent over 4 years

is simply not good enough.

FEW suggests the following for improvements. We have queried

all of our members and our leadership and offer the following suggestions that could help the improvement of the ability of women

and minorities to move up through the ranks into the SES by

training. By far, our FEW members cited the lack of training and

cross-training as a major obstacle to women moving into the top

levels of the Federal Government. There are several areas in which

training can be improved for women aspiring to move up in the

ranks.

First and foremost, training dollars have shrunk to a truly unbelievable low level over the last couple of years. When funding is

tight, training is one of the first things cut; yet, it critically impacts

the quality of our Federal work force.

Second, women tend to be employed at the lower ranks in the

Federal Government at much greater numbers than men. This does

not mean that they do not aspire to be in leadership or management positions. We argue that, to help women move into higherlevel jobs, they need the training opportunities along the way, and

therefore should be permitted to take manager and upper-level

training along with their progression. FEW believes so strongly in

this approach that, during our national training programs held

over many years, any attendee, whatever their GS level or job description, can take any training workshop that they would like, including those geared toward upper management and leadership positions.

Further, by attending our national training program, attendees

are exposed to high-ranking officers, Government employees, in

both educational and social settings.

Mentoring: having a mentor is an extremely important aspect to

any Federal worker’s progression; however, there are no formal

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ernment. Women need to have leaders to whom they can ask questions, obtain advice about their careers, and receive suggestions on

career moves. FEW also suggests that perhaps incentives should be

made available to the senior managers to establish, endorse, and

participate in this very mentoring program. Further, the establishment and participation in a mentoring program should be part of

the manager or supervisor and the employee’s performance requirements to hold those leaders responsible for increasing diversity.

The OPM Federal candidate development program: as we remarked during our 2003 testimony before this subcommittee, the

creation of the Federal candidate development program was important; however, there are many ways the program should be improved. Only an extremely low number of applicants are actually

admitted into the program. For instance, my figures from 2004

show that there were 4,704 applicants received yet only about 50

candidates were accept. Considering the vast numbers of retirements expected in the next couple of years, especially from the top

levels of the Government, many more potential candidates for SES

must be trained to fill these slots.

Of more critical importance is the lack of outreach to potential

candidates. An overwhelming majority of my FEW members had

never heard of this program, many of whom were already qualified

and could have possibly been a candidate and accepted.

The Federal women’s program: it was instituted in 1967 by an

Executive Order No. 11375, and it created Federal women’s programs which were mandated to have in every Government entity

to provide ongoing training, career counseling, leadership, and to

ensure women were provided guidance for advancement. However,

this Federal women’s program became another victim of our vastly

decreased funding.

Again, we very much appreciate the subcommittee and chairman’s interest, and I and the other 1.2 million Federally Employed

Women are proud of the work we do for the Federal Government

and to help women and minorities aspire and succeed in entering

the SES.

I was going to ask for more time because I have such a Southern

accent, but looks like I went over, but anyway, thank you so much.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Trent follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much. We will certainly

have some time in the question and answer period.

Mr. Sandate.

STATEMENT OF GILBERT SANDATE

Mr. SANDATE. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of

the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before

you today.

My name is Gilbert Sandate and I am the senior policy advisor

to Jose Osegueda, president and CEO of the National Association

of Hispanic Federal Executives [NAHFE]. I am also a past president of NAHFE.

NAHFE is proud to represent all senior level Hispanics in the

Federal work force and to speak on their behalf at this hearing

today. As you may be aware, NAHFE’s mission is to promote the

development and advancement of qualified Hispanics to senior level

policymaking positions in the Federal Government.

Hispanics are the largest minority in the country, representing

14.5 percent of the total population and 13.6 percent of the national

civilian labor force. Yet, Hispanic representation in the Federal

work force was but 7.5 percent as of June 30, 2006, leaving them

the only under-represented minority group in the Federal work

force. And according to recent OPM reports, Hispanics were represented in career SES level jobs at 2.5 percent as of June 30,

2006. In the key feeder occupations leading to SES positions, OPM

data reported minimal representation for Hispanics.

Mechanisms are needed to ensure that Hispanic candidates in

the pipeline can move successfully into senior career level positions.

Having worked my entire 34-year Federal career in the civil

rights and human resources fields, primarily as a manager, I can

speak with some authority about the barriers and obstacles that

minorities, especially Hispanics, face in reaching career goals. I

have witnessed first-hand the unfairness, the prejudice, and discrimination that is often present in hiring, promotion, and advancement decisions in the Federal workplace. I have worked for and

with Federal managers who viewed the Government’s diversity and

equal employment opportunity programs as a nuisance, something

to be tolerated and marginally complied with, but always relegated

to third-tier priority status.

NAHFE believes the answer to successfully diversifying the senior level ranks of Government is to set in place and to enforce

meaningful systems of accountability so that managers and supervisors may be held accountable for effectively carrying out their

legal mandate to implement and promote equal employment opportunity and diversity programs.

The diversity practices in hiring, development, retention, and

promotion of Hispanics in the Federal work force are not being enforced. As a result, we have agencies such as the Department of

Defense, with nearly one million civilian and 1,200 SES level employees, with a Hispanic representation in the SES levels of 1.5

percent. This is especially shameful when you consider that today

over 12 percent of all casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan are young

Hispanic soldiers. We submit to this subcommittee that if we are

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good enough to die for our country, we ought to be good enough to

serve it as Government employees at all levels of the Federal work

force.

Another agency that should be a model for the Hispanic community is the Department of Education, yet, out of 165 SES positions,

DOE has a total Hispanic representation of 1 employee.

NAHFE believes that the administration and oversight of Government career training and leadership development programs

must be monitored so that barriers to fair and equal participation

by Hispanic and other minority candidates can be eliminated. Too

often these training and development decisions are made based on

favoritism, prejudice, and exclusion.

In summary, NAHFE recommends the following: Congress

should strengthen existing diversity accountability systems by

tying them to the appropriation and budget oversight process.

Congress should require agencies to forcefully implement the accountability systems for which they are responsible.

Congress should provide a funding source for nonprofit, constituency-based organizations such as NAHFE to partner with Federal

agencies in identification and training of talented Hispanic candidates to prepare them for senior-level positions.

Congress should require that all agencies initiate SES candidate

development programs.

And, last, this subcommittee can serve as a diversity model by

retaining a cadre of well-qualified Hispanic career civil servants to

work with the subcommittee staff on a 1-year temporary assignment on issues related to improving Hispanic diversity at the SES

levels of the Government.

Chairman Davis, members of the subcommittee, we thank you

for the opportunity to share these views with you today.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Sandate follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much. We sure appreciate your testimony.

Ms. Young.

STATEMENT OF DARLENE YOUNG

Ms. YOUNG. Good afternoon, Chairman Davis, Ranking Member

Marchant, and subcommittee members. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to the topic of diversity in the Senior Executive

Service and top-level executive positions, GS–14 and 15 of the Federal Government. In 2003, my predecessor, Gregory Reeves, also

testified for Blacks in Government.

Last year Blacks in Government celebrated 30 years of being an

advocacy and training organization on behalf of African Americans

employed by Federal, State, and municipal governments. Our goals

and objectives are to promote professionalism among blacks in government, eliminate practices of racism and discrimination, maintain a mechanism for the gathering and dissemination of pertinent

information, and to develop and promote programs which will enhance ethnic pride.

Increasing the percentage of African Americans in the highest

level positions is and has always been one of our most difficult and

significant challenges. We have yet to overcome.

The number of African Americans in almost every Senior Executive Service position and job category lags significantly when you

compare to whites. Today, African Americans comprise roughly 6.6

percent of SES positions, while the whites is approximately 90 percent.

The low rate of SES appointments for African Americans is unacceptable, regardless of whether it is measured against the overall

distribution of 20 percent of African Americans in the Federal work

force or against 11 percent employed in the civil labor force.

Today I will highlight four systematic personnel process that we

believe adversely impact the recruitment of African Americans for

SES positions. The four are: the expansion of the applicant pool;

training and development programs; modification of selection process; and making top managers accountable for the results.

Expansion of the applicant pool: increasing the internal recruitment, involving advocacy groups in the external recruitment. Some

of those examples would be such as giving that information of all

those SES positions to Blacks in Government at our training conference. At our training conference we have over 5,000 applicants

that are at our conference, and at that time we have agencies who

have booths, so if that information is available those applicants

who are qualified could then apply for those positions in the SES.

Institute SES training and development programs: what Blacks

in Government has done to help with that process is we have

partnered with the U.S. Graduate School. We have developed our

own leadership program that will enhance our members to be able

to qualify for the SES level.

Modification of selection process: decentralize selection process,

eliminate OPM’s ratification, and involve SES minorities in the selection process.

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Top management involvement: ensure that top level is aware of

the SES diversity goals and problems. Include diversity progress in

the standards and the evaluations.

I could go on and on about how you can increase the level of

SESers among African Americans and minorities, but at this point

I will stop.

I want to thank this subcommittee for allowing me this opportunity to speak on behalf of Blacks in Government. I will look forward to entertaining any questions that you may have.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Young follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Ms. Young.

We will go to Mr. Bransford.

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM BRANSFORD

Mr. BRANSFORD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman Davis.

The Senior Executive Association appreciates the opportunity to

testify about the important topic of the lack of diversity in the senior ranks of Government. I am Bill Bransford, general counsel of

SEA.

We applaud your oversight of diversity in the career SES and

other senior positions in Government. SEA also seeks to work toward an SES that represents fully the diversity of America. Not

only is it the right thing to do, but achieving diversity will pay dividends by producing a Government lead by executives that reflect

America.

The 2003 Government Accountability Office report on this subject showed that women and minorities were significantly underrepresented based upon their overall presence in the Federal work

force. The upcoming retirement tsunami presents an excellent opportunity to get it right with respect to diversity in the SES. OPM

projects that 90 percent of the current SES will retire over the next

10 years, with the largest number retiring in 2009. This is a chance

to change the culture of the Federal workplace to one that promotes diversity.

SEA sees four areas where the Government could dramatically

improve diversity. First, develop clear data and make it accessible.

Second, build pipelines for career development to assure that minorities and women will be promoted to the Senior Executive Service. Third, respect the merit system. Finally, and perhaps most important, adopt a culture of leadership that emphasizes being inclusive of all employees.

In most agencies data on diversity remains in the realm of the

agency EEO office. Promoting diversity needs to be a team effort,

with the entire organization knowing where it stands, where it

wants to go, and how it plans to get there.

If agencies looked at data in the context of other issues in the

organization, such as dead-end jobs and EEO complaints, it can be

even more valuable in identifying and solving problems. Agencies

should work with associated interest groups such as the ones on

this panel to recognize where their diversity problems lie.

Once issues are identified through good data and collaboration,

agencies can better tailor their hiring, training, and promotion to

support diversity.

Diverse, qualified, quality candidates must be placed in the pipeline leading to senior executive positions. While good data helps us

understand how to accomplish this, leadership is what will make

it happen.

Promoting a diverse leadership is more easily said than done. As

it stands now, promoting diversity in the Federal workplace is not

rewarded. Quite conversely, many senior personnel are confounded

by the EEO system and work to avoid complaints, not to promote

diversity. An atmosphere of ‘‘gotcha’’ seems to pervade some Federal workplaces and causes many managers to believe that higherlevel management will not support them on the issue of diversity.

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The basic notion of the best candidate should be promoted has

not changed, nor should it change as we seek a more diversity work

force. Developing a qualified and diverse work force does not violate the merit system. Agencies need to encourage managers who

promote diversity as an agency-wide, inclusive culture.

Our final and most important point is about leadership for diversity. Gathering data, creating talent pipelines, dispelling myths,

and training leaders are all steps on a longer journey. In an ideal

workplace, holding diversity as a value must be acknowledged, promoted, and rewarded. The best way to move beyond the status quo

is to encourage agency heads and individuals in leadership to actually champion diversity rather than simply pay lip service to it.

Managers at all levels must act and speak diversity every day. If

higher-level political appointees do it, lower-level career managers

will know that promoting diversity in a fair and inclusive workplace will be rewarded and it can become a model for senior Government leadership that reflects the America of today and into the

future.

This must be a genuine effort that continuously identifies problems, eliminates barriers, and communicates the values of diversity

through our Government. With perseverance and commitment, we

believe a diverse civil service from top to bottom can be achieved.

There was a time when the Federal workplace was less diverse

than it is now. It is time for the top echelons of the Federal work

force to catch up.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify before this subcommittee. SEA looks forward to working with you and with agencies on this important issue.

Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bransford follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Well, thank you all very much. You

know, as I listened to the testimony and as we got closer and closer

to the end of the hearing, I was reminded, I guess, of this notion

that sometimes we save the best for last. I mean, in terms of the

goals and objectives that we have set for this subcommittee—and

I am pretty up front in terms of who I am and what I believe and

what I do—the testimony that you have provided I think gives a

kind of blueprint in a way for some directions that we could take.

I really do appreciate it.

One of the things that I have said relative to my own being is

that when I leave this subcommittee and if I leave its chairmanship I certainly don’t intend that the numbers reflect the same, and

I don’t intend that the problems when delineated will be the same

with no concrete direction for how we change them.

I will ask, and perhaps each one of you can respond. Where do

you suggest that we start? Mr. Brown? I mean, we have delineated

some barriers, we have laid out some situations, and if we begin

to change them what is a good place to start?

Mr. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think the first place I

would start would be with the existing cadre of personnel you have

now and work force. In other words, there is a system in place now.

I would tweak that system. And I think I would do more than

tweak it; I would really give it a shot in the arm. That was the

basis for our testimony of holding the selecting officials accountable.

You know, our membership tells us about individuals having sole

authority to promote people. You know, we have to get serious

about the business of requiring that this is a committee selection,

there is minority representation on that committee, and the agency

head is going to review those recommendations in light of the strategic vision that you have put forth in terms of diversity in the

workplace. So I would start with giving a shot in the arm to the

existing process by holding them accountable.

On the other hand, I would send another message by setting up

a reward system, a diversity award. For those of you that understand and comply with the vision set forth by this committee, there

is a reward at the end. Now, we can talk about reward being a better America and the talent and so forth, but I am talking about

right away your agency, we are going to show you and hold you up

as a model. That is where I would start, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Anyone else, would you respond?

Mr. SANDATE. Yes, Mr. Chairman. To us it is very clear that

what needs to be done in order to improve the system of advancing

minorities to the senior levels is that somebody needs to hold Government agencies accountable for doing what they are supposed to

be doing.

There are tools that are out there now. For example, the Uniform

Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, EEOC has the responsibility to enforce and monitor those. That is not happening.

The implementation of Executive Order 13171, Hispanic Employment in the Federal Government, OPM has the responsibility to

monitor and enforce agencies’ effective implementation of that. It

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gram, or FEORP, again, OPM has that responsibility, not happening. And so forth. The tools are there.

The strategic management of human capital, which is a responsibility that OMB and OPM has to ensure that the diversity component is being implemented effectively, not happening. Everybody is

getting a green pass, a rubber stamp on their diversity efforts

under strategic management of human capital. No one seems to be

holding Federal agencies accountable for carrying out their mission

effectively in this area.

Ms. TRENT. Chairman Davis, I would offer that we need to hold

close and dear to us that we need to prepare these candidates in

order to move up. The preparation is paramount.

Whatever happened to the upper mobility programs, the job

sharing programs in order to help people get into the career fields

that would aspire them to have a high motivation or to aspire them

to go on in the Federal Government? I personally was picked up

on an upper mobility program. That is how I went from a job to

a career in the Federal Government. Those upper mobility programs don’t exist. There are very, very few. Women and minorities

would jump on the chance to have an upper mobility or a job sharing program. Those things used to be very, very sought after.

We have to prepare these people, and by all means we have to

help these people become educated. Most of my FEW members that

answered my questions when I was preparing on this, most of them

didn’t really even understand the SES and how to aspire and get

there. We have to have mentoring programs that help get the word

out, train these people in order so they can be a candidate, and

then they can be a candidate and go through the proper selection

panel process that these gentleman have just discussed.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you.

Ms. YOUNG. Chairman Davis, Blacks in Government spent many

years of bringing SES to our training conference over years. We

have many African Americans that are sitting, waiting to be placed

in SES positions. They don’t fit the criteria for the jobs that are

available.

I would say that you would need to start with the SESers that

are out there. There is a pool of us out there that should be placed

in some of these jobs that are vacant, but if you are not from—an

example would be I have a young man that is from HUD who is

an SESer, but there is no SES position at HUD that he can fill,

so there are applicants that are out there that are ready, but these

agency’s SESers are not being selected.

Mr. BRANSFORD. Mr. Chairman, I think one of the first things

that can be done is to improve the data. When you look at the data

now, you look at OPM’s FedScope, first of all, it takes a lot of effort

to figure out what it is trying to tell you, and then it doesn’t tell

you enough. For example, in talking to some of the Asian Pacific

American groups, they tell me that their members tend to get

dead-ended into technical jobs and they can’t get into management

positions, but they really don’t have the data to show this because

the data is not being developed at that level of detail.

So I think if we look at the data, develop a level of detail with

the idea of trying to discover the barriers, not only develop the data

but then have a program to do something with it, something about

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it, I think then we can figure out just why this has become such

a big problem.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Well, you know, I could go on and on with

this and could sit and listen to you for the next several hours, but

I won’t put you through that punishment, but I will say that the

insight that you have provided for the committee, that we will certainly take that information. I mean, we will take your information, your experiences, your feelings, and really sift through it and

try and come up with something that becomes doable.

I am sitting here saying to myself, why do you always take these

real tough things to do? I mean, systems that are ingrained, that

people do everything within their power to protect, feelings and

prejudices and discriminations and all of those things that are as

old as time. Here I am talking about we are going to take this subcommittee and attempt to seriously do something with it. Well, we

are going to do that, and I thank you for the inspiration and motivation and for your participation which has helped push that forward.

Again, I thank all of those who have remained to hear the end

of the session. We will just determine that this hearing is adjourned.

Thank you.

[Whereupon, at 4:58 p.m. the subcommittee was adjourned.]

[The prepared statement of Hon. Elijah E. Cummings and additional information submitted for the hearing record follows:]

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