Defense Department Original Transformation Proposal: Compared to Existing Law
Released: 2003-05-19T00:00:00

Introduction

In April 2003, the Department of Defense (DOD) sent Congress a proposal entitled, "DefenseTransformation for the 21st Century Act of 2003." (1) The 207-page proposal would have made manychanges, in some cases major changes, in the military personnel and acquisition systems, and in thestatutory basis for much of DOD's civilian personnel system. The changes would have occurred ina number of titles in the U.S. Code; but, primarily in Title 5 (Government Organization andEmployees) and Title 10 (Armed Forces). A number of congressional committees have begun actionon various parts of this proposal. The Senate Armed Services Committee reported S. 1050 on May 9 ( S.Rept. 108-46 ), and the House Armed Services Committee reported H.R. 1588 on May 16 ( H.Rept. 108-106 ); the House Committee on Government Reformreported H.R. 1836 on May 8 (ordered to reported (amended) by voice vote).

This report summarizes and lists all of the proposal's sections along side the relevant provisions in current law, if they exist, that would have been impacted by the proposal. The idea is to providethe reader with a type of roadmap that would help relate each aspect of the proposal to existing law. Provisions from the Homeland Security Act (HSA) of 2002 specific to personnel management in theDepartment of Homeland Security are listed separately from the rest of the current law primarilybecause they are the most recent legislative actions impacting Title 5. HSA provisions that appliedgovernment-wide are covered under "Current Law" (column 2) of the report. HSA provisions alsorepresent the broadest changes in Title 5 in a number of years. The DOD proposal, if it had beenenacted in its entirety, would have resulted in significantly greater changes in Title 5 than the HSAchanges.

Because the DOD proposal covered such a wide spectrum of current law, a number of Congressional Research Service (CRS) analysts and attorneys contributed to this report. Most arelisted with their subject coverage in a separate table in this report. CRS made every effort to becomprehensive in identifying statutes currently in effect which would relate to the proposed changein the law. However, there may be some provision in law which has been inadvertently omitted. This report will not be updated unless additional clarification of DOD's proposal or relevant currentlaw is warranted.

Defense Department Original Transformation Proposal: Compared to Existing Law

Key Policy Staff