Kraven Moorehead

Letter From Democrats Asks Rumsfeld About Differing Raises

By Stephen Barr
Thursday, February 10, 2005; Page B02

Three Democrats have asked the Pentagon to explain why political appointees in some parts of the Defense Department are receiving slightly higher pay raises than their career counterparts in the executive ranks.

"We believe the importance of maintaining high morale among career [Defense Department] employees far outweighs the benefits of giving slightly higher pay raises to political appointees," the Democrats said in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, Dan G. Blair.

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Stephen Barr can be reached by e-mail at barrs@washpost.com.

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A Defense memo, reported in the Federal Diary on Jan. 18, said political appointees in the Senior Executive Service are in line for 2.5 percent pay raises this year if they have been deemed "fully successful." That same job rating is worth a 2 percent raise for career SES members if they have not won certain awards in the past year, the memo said.

The memo was sent to Defense agencies, including some in the Washington area, that fall under the jurisdiction of Raymond F. DuBois, a deputy undersecretary of defense.

The letter questioning the SES raises was sent by Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), members of the House Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The Pentagon plans to announce new pay and personnel rules today for about 750,000 civil service employees, and the three Democrats said they were "concerned that the new pay policy for SES employees will serve as a precedent for the pay-for-performance system that DOD is developing for all department employees."

The lawmakers said Congress has laid out principles that stipulate any performance-based system must be "fair and equitable and based on employee performance."

The decision to give slightly higher raises to political appointees in the SES than to career members drew a protest last month from the Senior Executives Association, which represents the interests of career executives across the government. By the association's count, at least 45 percent of the career executives in the office of the secretary of defense are not eligible for the higher raise.

In the Senior Executive Association's latest newsletter, the association's general counsel expressed concern "that the new pay system could be used to politicize the career SES."

Bill Bransford, the group's counsel, pointed out that the SES pay system can be turned against a senior executive who "has chosen to do the right thing rather than the political thing." Agency leaders can reduce an executive's pay by 10 percent per year, award no salary increase or provide "a very small increase," Bransford wrote. "The subtle (or not so subtle) message sent by such an action can have a chilling effect on other executives," he wrote.