31 July 2007
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker Minority Leader
Dear Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Boehner,
I am writing to you on behalf of the membership of the Fraternal Order of Police to express our strong support for the inclusion of the bipartisan Van Hollen/Inslee/Jones amendment to the H.R. 3222, the FY 2008 Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriations measure.
Since its promulgation in the FY 2004 DoD Authorization bill, the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) has sought to reduce the rights of law enforcement officers within DoD. The system entailed a reduction in collective bargaining for our officers on issues such as overtime, flextime, and transfer from any site by allowing the Secretary to remove any subject from bargaining. The NSPS also proposed to replace the independent Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) and the Federal Services Impasse Panel with an internal board whose members would be selected by the Secretary and which would not be independent by law.
NSPS would also give DoD the authority to reverse arbitrators' and independent Merit Systems Protection Board (MPSB) judges' decisions on employees' appeals of adverse personnel actions. DoD's final decision then may be reviewed by the full MSPB. This would entail a reduction in the rule and power of arbitrators and independent judges and will dramatically increase MSPB workload and thereby delay results. NSPS also prohibits arbitrators and independent judges from reducing penalties imposed by DoD unless it is "totally unwarranted." This standard, which heretofore has never been used, is designed to prevent DoD from ever having to reduce a disciplinary action, no matter the circumstances.
Congress had already noted the inherent unfairness of the NSPS and has included language in this year’s DoD Authorization bill which would repeal the NSPS. However, we are asking you to go further and thereby defund the NSPS in the FY 2008 DoD Appropriations bill. NSPS has already drastically reduced the morale of our officers at the DoD and this would be an important step in restoring it. It is also important to note that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a recent report (GAO-07-851, Human Capital: DOD Needs Better Internal Controls and Visibility over Costs for Implementing Its National Security Personnel System, July 16, 2007) that costs for the NSPS program were already $158 million more than had been anticipated.
On behalf of the more than 325,000 members of the Fraternal
Order of Police, I want to thank you for all of your help on this important
issue. Please do not hesitate to contact
me, or Executive Director Jim Pasco, through our
Sincerely,
Chuck Canterbury
National President