NSPS NEWS 

The Battle Continues

As you may have heard the House has voted to cut off funding for DoD's national security personnel system, the most severe in a series of actions Congress has taken against the system this year. The voice vote, during consideration of the 2008 DoD appropriations bill (HR-3222), came with no debate; only two members of the House even submitted comments on the issue, both criticizing the system's implementation, characterizing it as mired in lawsuits and citing a recent GAO report finding that DoD is unable to track its costs. The House earlier had voted as part of a separate DoD bill to repeal the labor relations and disciplinary rights provisions, while requiring bargaining on other aspects, such as pay for performance, to the extent required by standard civil service law. The White House threatened to veto the earlier bill over even that more limited provision.

On the federal Court front an appeals court has rejected a request from federal employee unions for a full court review of a panel's decision upholding rules that would scale back collective The coalition of unions that had asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review a May ruling in favor of the Defense Department will now take the case to the Supreme Court.

J.B. Johnson

International Association of Fire Fighters