Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
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Inslee permanently restores rights for civilian defense workers
12 December 2007
With the help of House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) secured collective-bargaining and dispute-settlement rights for the nation’s civilian Defense Department workers, including 10,000 at Naval Base Kitsap and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
He won a key provision in the broad defense authorization bill that would put a permanent end to aspects of the controversial National Security Personnel System (NSPS) that a judge has said violates the rights of over 100,000 workers currently enrolled in the program and another half million who have been slated for inclusion in the system.
“This puts the last nail in the coffin for a flawed personnel program that denied basic rights to civilians working for the Pentagon,” said Inslee, a Puget Sound area congressman who has fought NSPS since 2004. “The security of our nation suffers when workers can’t voice ideas and concerns without fearing for their jobs.
“The Defense Department needs to start from scratch to create a system that doesn’t silence these employees.”
As early as 2002, the Bush Administration started replacing the familiar General Schedule for pay and other employment protocols. Inslee and others have opposed NSPS on the basis that it could lead to the appointment and promotion of workers based on their political views, rather than merit. They have pushed for extending long-standing employment protections for civil servants that help prevent cronyism and nepotism.
Inslee first offered a year-long fix as part of a defense spending bill in June 2004. It failed. But after Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that several portions of system dealing with labor relations were illegal in 2006, Inslee gained support for his fix. He won language in the June 2006 defense appropriations bill that funded the Defense Department and NSPS in fiscal year 2007.
In addition to Inslee’s NSPS provision, the defense authorization bill approved in the House just before 5 p.m. EST by a vote of 370 to 49 would help restore military readiness by creating a Strategic Readiness Fund to address equipment shortfalls, fully fund Army and Marine Corps equipment reset requirements, and authorize new resources to provide the National Guard and Reserve critically needed equipment.