WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- U.S. lawmakers have rejected additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security's new personnel system.
The Appropriations Committee's Homeland Security subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to provide $29.7 million for the system in fiscal 2007, which is equal to 2006 levels, a spokeswoman said. That figure falls short of the $41.8 million requested in the president's budget, GovExec.com reported Monday.
The DHS' personnel system, authorized by Congress in 2002 when it formed the department, will feature a market- and performance-based pay approach to replace the decades-old General Schedule under which most civil servants work.
Federal employee unions, including the National Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of Government Employees, are asking Congress to strip the personnel system of funding in order to halt the overhaul, which they argued would promote cronyism and jeopardize annual pay raises.
NTEU President Colleen Kelley last week wrote a letter to Reps. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the subcommittee, and Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., its ranking member, asking them to redirect the money proposed for the personnel system.
Beth Moten, legislative director for AFGE, told GovExec.com that the union strongly supports the elimination of any funding for the DHS personnel system.
In budget request documents, the DHS stated that the $41.8 million would go to the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer "to continue implementation of the human resources system initiative ...(that) rewards employees for their contributions to the mission of the department, not simply for longevity."
