NFFE Praises Armed Services Committee for Adopting Shea-Porter Amendment Concerning NSPS

Washington, D.C. – The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), a national union representing 100,000 federal workers throughout government, praises the House Armed Services Committee for adopting Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s amendment to H.R. 2647, the 2010 Defense Authorization Act, containing language that would stop the expansion of the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) and open the door toward repeal of the controversial personnel plan.

Considered by the House Armed Services Committee late Tuesday, the amendment seeks to restore the full annual pay adjustment for all Defense employees, prohibit new hires from being placed under NSPS, prohibit reclassification of employees under NSPS, and convert all NSPS employees back to the General Schedule (GS), should the ongoing NSPS review come back in the negative.

Friday, NFFE National President Richard N. Brown wrote an urgent letter to members of the committee urging support for the amendment.

“Since its implementation, NSPS has dramatically undermined both the strategic interests of the DoD and the wellbeing of its workforce,” said Brown in his letter to the committee. “With worker morale reaching an unprecedented low, the time has come to abandon this ill-conceived plan, which has wasted billions of taxpayers’ dollars. As you move to take further action on the Defense Authorization bill, I hope that you will seriously consider the proposed amendment.”

NFFE and other Defense unions have fought hard to unravel NSPS since it was first authorized by Congress in 2003. With the adoption of Rep. Shea-Porter’s amendment, NFFE feels the committee has taken a big step in the right direction.

“NFFE has long supported the complete repeal of NSPS, and will continue to do so until this anti-union, anti-worker personnel system has been wiped clear from the books,” said Brown in a separate statement. “We praise Congresswoman Shea-Porter for standing with federal employees and pledge to be at her side as we move this critical proposal through Congress.”

 “For years we have been throwing good money after bad implementing a system that has failed time and time again to fairly and objectively link pay with performance,” said Brown. “Prohibiting the hiring of new employees under NSPS would be a crucial step toward ending this bleeding of taxpayers’ dollars.”