ABSTRACT
Background The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 20041 provided the Department of Defense (DoD) with authority to establish (1) a pay and performance management system, (2) an appeals process and (3) a labor relations system-which together comprise the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). The legislation permits significant flexibility for designing NSPS, allowing for a new framework of rules, regulations and processes to govern how defense civilian employees are hired, compensated, promoted and disciplined. The law granted DoD certain exemptions from laws governing federal civilian personnel management found in Title 5 of the U.S. Code.2 The Congress provided these flexibilities in response to DoD’s position
126
that the inflexibility of federal personnel systems was one of the most important constraints to the department’s ability to attract, retain, reward and develop a civilian workforce to meet the national security mission of the twenty-first century.
