ATSA applied the personnel management system of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to TSA employees, and further authorized TSA to make any modifications to the system it considered necessary. Therefore, similar to FAA, TSA is exempt from many of the requirement s imposed and enforced by OPM—the agency responsible for establishinghuman capital policies and regulations for the federal government—and, thus, has more flexibility in managing its executive workforce than ma ny other federal agencies. For example, compared to agencies operating under OPM’s regulations, TSA is not limited in the number of permanent TSES appointments and limited term TSES appointments it may make an the types of positions limited term TSES appointments may be used for. Also, TSA has more discretion in granting recruitment, relocation, or retention incentives to TSES staff than other agencies have for SES staff (see table 1). One benefit available to career-appointed SES in OPM-regulated agencies is that once they are accepted into the SES of their agency, they can apply for and obtain SES positions in other OPM-regulated executive branch agencies without undergoing the merit staffing process. DHS and OPM signed an agreement in February 2004 which also allows career-appointed TSES staff the benefit of applying to SES positions without being subject to the merit staffing process. Under the provisions of the agreement, TSA must ensure that all TSES staff selected for their first career TSES appointment (1) are hired using a process that encompasses merit staffing principles and (2) undergo the ECQ-evaluation process. Consistent with OPM regulations, a hiring process that encompasses federal merit staffing requirements should include: public notice of position availability, identification of all minimally eligible candidates, identification of position qualifications, rating and ranking of all eligible candidates using position qualifications, determination of the best qualified candidates (a “best qualified list”), selection of a candidate for the position from among those best qualified, certification of a candidate’s executive and technical qualifications. TSES Positions within TSA TSA has consistently employed more senior executives than any other DHS component agency; however, as shown in table 2, from fiscal years 2005 through 2008, TSA went from being one of the DHS components with the highest numbers of executive staff per nonexecutive staff, to one of the components with the fewest executive staff per nonexecutive staff. Specifically, out of eight DHS components, TSA had the third highest number of executives per nonexecutive staff in 2005; however, by fiscal year 2008, TSA had the third lowest number of executives per nonexecutive staff. Compared with DHS overall, TSA had the same number of executive per nonexecutive staff as DHS in 2005, but over the 4- year period, the number of TSA executive to nonexecutive staff declined, while that of DHS increased. Moreover, the number of TSA executive staff per nonexecutive staff was consistently lower than that of all cabinet-level departments for fiscal years 2005 through 2008 (see table 2). TSA has employed approximately equal numbers of TSES staff in both headquarters and in the field, where its operational mission of securing the nation’s transportation system is carried out (see table 3). TSES positions in the field include federal security directors (FSDs) who are responsible for implementing and overseeing security operations, including passenger and baggage screening, at TSA-regulated airports; area directors, who supervise and provide support and coordination of federal security directors in the field; special agents in charge, who are part of the Federal Air Marshal Service and generally located at airports to carry out investigative activities; and senior field executives, who work with FSDs and other federal, state, and local officials to manage operational requirements across transportation modes. Headquarters executive positions generally include officials responsible for managing TSA divisions dedicated to internal agency operations, such as the Office of Human Capital or the Office of Legislative Affairs, and external agency operations, such as the Office of Security Operations and the Office of Global Strategies. TSES attrition for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 was at its highest (20 percent) in fiscal year 2005, due to a surge in resignations for that fiscal year. The rate of attrition among TSES staff for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 was consistently lower than the rate of attrition among all DHS SES, but, until 2008, higher than the SES attrition rate for all other cabinet-level departments. TSA human capital officials acknowledge that attrition among TSES staff has been high in the past—which they attribute to the frequent turnover in administrators the agency experienced from its formation in fiscal year 2002 through mid-2005—and noted that since TSA has had more stable leadership, attrition has declined. CPDF data for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 show that attrition among TSES staff rose from fiscal year 2004 to fiscal year 2005—peaking at 20 percent in fiscal year 2005—and has declined each year thereafter, measuring 10 percent in 2008. Attrition includes separations due to resignations, retirements, expiration of a limited term appointment, terminations, or transfers to another cabinet-level department. The rate of attrition among TSES headquarters staff was generally more than double that of TSES staff in the field. Specifically, in fiscal years 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008, TSES attrition in headquarters was 26, 28, 28, and 14 percent respectively, compared to TSES attrition in the field, which was 8, 13, 10, and 6 percent respectively (see fig. 1). With regard to the manner in which TSES separated (through resignation, retirement, expiration of a limited term appointment, termination, or transfer to another cabinet-level department), our analysis of CPDF data shows that resignations were the most frequent type of TSES separation, accounting for almost half of total separations over the 5-year period and about two thirds of all separations during fiscal years 2005 and 2006 (see table 4). Also, over the 5-year period, transfers and retirements tied for the second-most frequent type of TSES separation, while expiration of a limited term appointment and “other” were the least common separation types for TSES. TSA human capital officials acknowledged that attrition among TSES staff has been high at certain points in TSA’s history. They noted that frequent turnover in administrators since TSA’s creation in 2002 through mid-2005 was the likely catalyst for much TSES attrition, and that once Administrator Hawley, who served the longest term of any TSA Administrator, was appointed, attrition among TSES staff declined. As shown in figure 2, the rate of attrition among TSES staff for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 was consistently lower than the rate of attrition among all DHS SES. On the other hand, from fiscal years 2004 through 2006, the TSES rate of attrition was higher than the overall SES attrition rate for all other cabinet-level departments, but in 2008, the rate was slightly lower than the rate for other cabinet-level departments. When comparing attrition among types of separations, we found that TSA had higher rates of executive resignations than DHS in 2005 and 2006; in particular, the rate of TSES resignations in 2005 (13 percent) was almost twice that of DHS SES (7 percent). TSA also had consistently higher rates of executive resignations than other cabinet-level departments for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 (see fig. 3). TSA human capital officials reiterated that many of these resignations were likely influenced by frequent turnover among TSA administrators, and that it is natural to expect that some executive staff would choose to leave the agency after a change in top agency leadership. They also explained that TSA’s high number of resignations could, in part, reflect TSES staff who opted to resign in lieu of being subject to disciplinary action or having a termination on their permanent record. Regarding other separation types, TSA’s TSES had lower rates of retirements for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 than SES in DHS and all cabinet-level departments. However, rates of transfers among TSES were about the same as those among SES in DHS and cabinet-level departments. For the same time period, TSA’s attrition rate for TSES terminations and expiration of term appointments was 3 percent or less, whereas the rate for DHS and all other cabinet-level departments was 1 percent or less. In interviews with 46 of 95 TSES who separated from TSA from fiscal years 2005 through 2008, most reported adverse reasons for leaving the agency—that is, a reason related to dissatisfaction with some aspect of their TSA experience, as opposed to a nonadverse reason, such as to spend more time with family or pursue another professional opportunity. Perceptions regarding the impact of TSES separations on TSA operations varied among TSA staff who directly reported to separated TSES staff members, TSES supervisors, and stakeholder groups representing industries that collaborate with TSA on security initiatives. Some of these reported that TSES attrition had little or no impact on the agency’s ability to implement transportation security initiatives, while others identified negative effects on agency operations, such as a lack of program direction and uncertainty and stress among employees. In addition to obtaining information on the manner by which TSES staff separated from the agency, such as through resignation or retirement, we also sought more detailed information on the factors that led staff members to separate. For example, for TSES staff members who left the agency through retirement, we sought information on any factors, beyond basic eligibility, that compelled them to leave the agency. According to TSA officials, one of the primary reasons for attrition among TSES has been the large number of TSES term appointees employed by the agency, who, by the very nature of their appointment, are expected to leave TSA, generally within 3 years.