By a 92-3 vote, the Senate passed the fiscal year 2008 Defense Authorization bill (HR 1585) earlier this week. The legislation includes language to fundamentally reform the Pentagon’s contentious personnel plan, the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). “We were very concerned that the Senate would not pass the Defense Authorization bill this year, and that our NSPS reform language would die with it,” said NFFE-IAM Federal District 1 President Rick Brown. “We are pleased to see this bill is passed and headed to conference.”
In the coming months, the House and Senate conferees will hammer out the differences between the two versions of the bill. The Senate language does not go as far as the House version to restore basic employee rights like collective bargaining and fair employee appeals. The Senate version also fails to address the pay-for-performance system.
“This Senate vote is another win for federal employees,” said IAM Government Employees Director Frank Carelli. “Our members worked hard putting pressure on the Senate to get this bill passed and won’t stop until the anti-worker NSPS is reformed.”