US LAWS, STATUTES & CODES ON-LINE

To the Congress of the United States:

On March 2nd I sent to Congress a Civil Service Reform proposal to enable the Federal government to improve its service to the American people.

Today I am submitting another part of my comprehensive proposal to reform the Federal personnel management system through Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1978. The plan will reorganize the Civil Service Commission and thereby create new institutions to increase the effectiveness of management and strengthen the protection of employee rights.

The Civil Service Commission has acquired inherently conflicting responsibilities: to help manage the Federal Government and to protect the rights of Federal employees. It has done neither job well. The Plan would separate the two functions.

The positive personnel management tasks of the government--such as training, productivity programs, examinations, and pay and benefits administration--would be the responsibility of an Office of Personnel Management. Its Director, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, would be responsible for administering Federal personnel matters except for Presidential appointments. The Director would be the government's principal representative in Federal labor relations matters.

The adjudication and prosecution responsibilities of the Civil Service Commission will be performed by the Merit Systems Protection Board. The Board will be headed by a bipartisan panel of three members appointed to six-year, staggered terms. This Board would be the first independent and institutionally impartial Federal agency solely for the protection of Federal employees.

The Plan will create, within the Board, a Special Counsel to investigate and prosecute political abuses and merit system violations. Under the civil service reform legislation now being considered by the Congress, the Counsel would have power to investigate and prevent reprisals against employees who report illegal acts--the so-called "whistleblowers." The Council would be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

An Executive Order now vests existing labor-management relations in a part-time Federal Labor-Relations Council, comprised of three top government managers; other important functions are assigned to the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Labor-Management Relations. This arrangement is defective because the Council members are part-time, they come exclusively from the ranks of management and their jurisdiction is fragmented.

The Plan I submit today would consolidate the central policymaking functions in labor-management relations now divided between the Council and the Assistant Secretary into one Federal Labor Relations Authority. The Authority would be composed of three full-time members appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. Its General Counsel, also appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, would present unfair labor practice complaints. The Plan also provides for the continuance of the Federal Service Impasses Panel within the Authority to resolve negotiating impasses between Federal employee unions and agencies.

The cost of replacing the Civil Service Commission can be paid by our present resources. The reorganization itself would neither increase nor decrease the costs of personnel management throughout the government. But taken together with the substantive reforms I have proposed, this Plan will greatly improve the government's ability to manage programs, speed the delivery of Federal services to the public, and aid in executing other reorganizations I will propose to the Congress, by improving Federal personnel management.

Each of the provisions of this proposed reorganization would accomplish one or more of the purposes set forth in 5 U.S.C. 901(a). No functions are abolished by the Plan, but the offices referred to in 5 U.S.C. 5109(b) and 5 U.S.C. 1103(d) are abolished. The portions of the Plan providing for the appointment and pay for the head and one or more officers of the Office of Personnel Management, the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Federal Labor Relations Authority and the Federal Service Impasses Panel, are necessary to carry out the reorganization. The rates of compensation are comparable to those for similar positions within the Executive Branch.

I am confident that this Plan and the companion civil service reform legislation will both lead to more effective protection of Federal employees' legitimate rights and a more rewarding workplace. At the same time the American people will benefit from a better managed, more productive and more efficient Federal Government.

Jimmy Carter.
The White House, May 23, 1978.