Military

The Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the Federal Workforce will come to order. Good afternoon, and thank you all for coming. I thank General Charles Metcalf and the Air Force Museum for hosting this field hearing. I appreciate your hard work and cooperation. As many of you know, this hearing was originally scheduled to take place in February, but inclement weather in Washington and Ohio caused its postponement. I am pleased that we were able to reschedule the event for this spring.

Today’s hearing is entitled, “An Overlooked Asset: The Defense Civilian Workforce.” This is the thirteenth hearing that this Subcommittee has held on the formidable human capital challenges confronting the federal government. Today we are examining one significant element of the federal government’s 1.8 million employee workforce: the civilian staff of the Department of Defense, the almost 700,000 workers who stand behind our men and women in uniform each and every day.

I mean this literally, in that they conduct vital research and development, administer bases, build and repair military equipment in arsenals and depots, operate the commissaries and exchanges that are so important to the morale of our servicemen and women, and countless other tasks.

However, I mean it figuratively as well. Congress and the Administration often spend more time examining and trying to ensure the health of the uniformed services than the Defense civilian workforce. To some extent, this is understandable. Military personnel are often sent into harm’s way, and can expect long separations in harsh, isolated locations from their homes and families. These are just two aspects of serving in uniform that the vast majority of civil servants do not face.

Nevertheless, we must stop overlooking the Defense civilian workforce and instead ensure that it too has the tools and resources it needs to perform its absolutely vital missions. We will ill serve the men and women on the front lines if the workforce designed to support them is inadequately manned and trained. I would note, however, that this year is different. The Bush Administration is working this address these issues, and Secretary Rumsfeld and his Defense Department team are to be commended for those efforts.

In March 2001, the Subcommittee held a hearing entitled, “National Security Implications of the Human Capital Crisis.” Among our panel of distinguished witnesses that day were was former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, member of the U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century. Secretary Schlesinger discussed a comprehensive evaluation on national security strategy and structure that was undertaken by the Commission. Regarding human capital, the Commission’s final report concluded:

“As it enters the 21st century, the United States finds itself on the brink of an unprecedented crisis of competence in government. The maintenance of American power in the world depends on the quality of U.S. government personnel, civil and military, at all levels. We must take immediate action in the personnel area to ensure that the United States can meet future challenges.”

Secretary Schlesinger added further:

“...it is the Commission’s view that fixing the personnel problem is a precondition for fixing virtually everything else that needs repair in the institutional edifice of U.S. national security policy.”

Since 1999, I have worked to express the urgency of the federal government’s human capital challenges – and their impact on critically important government functions, such as national security – to my colleagues. I have championed a series of legislative reforms in Congress, which should have a significant impact on the way the federal government manages its people in the coming years.

In fact, the first legislative solution I authored had its genesis right here at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Three years ago, base leadership shared with me their concerns that the civilian workforce was not configured properly to achieve current and projected mission requirements. Working with my colleagues on the Governmental Affairs and Armed Services Committees, we drafted a measure to address these workforce shaping challenges. I was the primary sponsor of an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Authorization Act that authorized 9,000 voluntary early retirement and voluntary separation incentive payments through this fiscal year. Of those 9,000 slots, 365 have been used here at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 101 of which were used by the Aeronautical Systems Center. I am interested in hearing more about how the Department of Defense, as well as the Air Force and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, have used those authorities.

In addition, significant governmentwide flexibilities, which I also authored, were included in the homeland security legislation that became law last year. I hope to learn today how the Department intends to use those authorities. On a related topic, the Department recently presented to Congress and requested enactment of the Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act, which includes a proposed “National Security Personnel System” that would dramatically overhaul the way DoD manages its people. Although committees in the House of Representatives have examined and marked up NSPS in a series of hearings during the past two weeks, I am hoping today that our Senate Subcommittee may learn more of the details and justifications behind this major reform proposal.