Davis calls for specifics for management agenda
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Rep. Tom Davis today said he wants to see more details from the administration on how it plans to continue to implement the President's Management Agenda and added that changes to the way the federal work force is paid and evaluated are coming. <br>
Rep. Tom Davis today said he wants to see more details from the administration on how it plans to continue to implement the President's Management Agenda and added that changes to the way the federal work force is paid and evaluated are coming. He also reiterated his backing for a federal CIO to oversee executive branch IT investments.
The Virginia Republican, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said at a luncheon sponsored by IBM Corp.'s Endowment for the Business of Government, that a governmentwide CIO would help ease the funding problems agencies face.
'We can get into jurisdictional fights with the executive branch, but really what it comes to is the [Office of Management and Budget] doesn't want to give up is the authority they have,' Davis said. 'Mark Forman [OMB's associate director for IT and e-government] has brought e-government a long way forward.'
With e-government being a part of the administration's agenda, Davis said OMB needs to provide more information about how it plans to implement all of the agenda.
'The administration has not come out with specifics of the PMA,' he said. 'It is easy to talk about plans, but the devils is in the details. We have a long way to go to know what they exactly mean.'
Davis said he would like to see the administration offer a bill or regulation change that would further e-government.
This is especially important to human capital management, he said. He added that the details of how the White House will implement merit-based pay must re-establish the credibility the administration lost with the civilian work force after requesting a 2 percent pay raise for non-Defense Department agencies in the fiscal 2004 budget. The administration requested a 4.1 percent raise for DOD.
'We have a window here of about two years to get things done with the Republicans controlling the House, Senate and White House,' Davis said. 'It makes people suspicious of whether they really support it when they request the lowest total pay increase for civilian agencies.'
Davis added that he is confident that at the very least Congress will legislate another pilot program to test alternative pay methods, such as pay banding and pay-for-performance.
'Right now you have the IRS and Federal Aviation Administration with two different models for pay-for-performance, and we will continue to go in that direction,' he said. 'We need to take a look at revamping this substantially. We will go through appropriate processes, holding hearings and talking to stake holders.'
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