Stewardship Report to the Congress

A provision for a stewardship report to Congress and a congressional review will be made in recognition of the historical and appropriate interest of the Congress in the authorization and allocation of executive resources and in the general management of the Government's executive manpower.

An annual report of agency and government-wide authorizations
including career and noncareer ratios will provide the Congress
with periodic opportunities to review and influence the Govern-
ment's executive manpower program.

This report will also be the means by which the general public will be periodically informed of the actions its Government is taking in the management of executive resources. The report will provide the openness of information that is the foundation of an effective merit system.

The Civil Service Commission will make this detailed report showing the following information for each agency and government-wide.

The current and projected size of the Federal Executive Service.

The current and projected ratios of career to noncareer appoint-
ments within the Service.

The current and projected salary cost of the Service..

The current and projected distribution of salaries and the
average salaries.

The Civil Service Commission's actions and supporting justifica-
tions in authorizing appointments for emergency needs.

Information on the overall program for management of the Government's executive manpower resources which might be helpful to the Congress in exercising its general oversight.

After 90 days following the submission of the report to Congress and in the absence of contrary action decided upon through the legislative oversight process, the agency size and ratio authorizations may be implemented.

System Responsibility Placed in the Central Personnel Agency

The administration of the Federal Executive Service will be placed in the Civil Service Commission for the following reasons:

To fix leadership responsibility for the development and operation of a positive personnel program for the upper levels that will:

Interrelate manpower management throughout all levels from
professional entry to the executive levels by defining
career fields and patterns of progression and insuring
that developmental and training opportunities required
for career progression will be provided.

Insure that manpower resources, particularly executive resources, will receive comparable top management attention to that given other resources so that:

= Manpower requirements will be related to program plans, priorities, and pending legislation.

= Staffing needs will be projected and sources of supply will be developed.

To enlarge the overview of the central personnel agency and give it more responsibility for stewardship and responsiveness to Congress and the Administration. This will:

Establish a single focal point for the President to manage and control the utilization of the great majority of the Government's executive resources.

Provide a unified source that will:

= Be a single authority accountable for executive resource stewardship.

= Assure government-wide consistency in the application
of the various regulations of the Federal Executive
Service.

To encourage a government-wide outlook on the part of agency

management so that there will be:

A government-wide approach to executive manpower management.

Increased opportunity for mobility of executives and potential executives among agencies and programs.

Effective Date

The Federal Executive Service will come into being and the operating provisions will become effective no later than one year after enactment of the proposed legislation. During this period, operating procedures and regulations will be developed.

The Civil Service Commission will be authorized to issue such regulations as will be necessary to carry out the legislation.

Transition to the Federal Executive Service

Executives with career appointments:

To give present career executives maximum opportunity to participate in the Federal Executive Service, all present career executives will be offered employment agreements.

All career executives may take 3-year agreements if that does
not carry them beyond mandatory retirement. If they are subject
to mandatory retirement before three years, they may take agree-
ments for periods up to mandatory retirement.

Career executives accepting employment agreements will be exempt from the requirement of qualifications approval provided the agreement offer is accepted within a reasonable time to be established by implementing regulations.

To insure that any rights or protections presently enjoyed by career executives will be preserved, executives:

- May choose not to take an employment agreement, but to continue under their curient appointments with all of their rights and privileges.

Thus, incumbents will not be forced to make a change.

- In the event of reduction in force, there will be no competition between executives in the Federal Executive Service and those holding other types of appointments.

To avoid inequities and hardship, the Civil Service Commission will have authority to regulate the details of the transition and to correct administrative errors and oversights in complying with its regulations.

Executives with excepted appointments:

The status of executives now serving under noncareer executive
assignment (NEA) appointments will not change. They will be
given noncareer appointments in the Federal Executive Service.

All of the protections of other executives serving in positions which are excepted from the competitive service will be preserved:

Because some of these appointments are actually career
types of appointments (e.g., some attorneys in Schedule
A), the agency, at its option, may offer individual execu-
tives career appointments with employment agreements
without the requirement of qualifications approval.

Those other executives who may not be offered an employment
agreement and those who do not accept an agreement, will be
protected by being allowed to remain under their present
appointments. They will retain all of the rights and
privileges of those appointments.

Application to Excluded Groups

Because the features of the Federal Executive Service merit consideration for executive manpower management programs throughout the Federal Government, executive branch agencies with excluded groups will be encouraged to consider the adoption of appropriate features.

Because the Civil Service Commission now has responsibilities for certain personnel functions for executives in agencies outside of the executive branch, provision will be made for those agencies to establish their own executive services, with the agency head as the regulatory, administrative, and reporting authority.

This will be done because:

Executive manpower management should be integrated with the
management of other resources in relation to the programs
being managed. Since, outside of the executive branch, the
agency head will determine his program plans and receive his
resource authorizations in a direct relationship with Congress,
it is more appropriate for that agency head to deal directly
with the Congress on the administration of his executive
service.

Similar executive services in the executive, judicial, and
legislative branches will facilitate the exchange of execu-
tives throughout the Government.

There no longer will be new positions at GS-16, -17, or -18 established anywhere in the Federal service, in or out of the executive branch.

Appeals will continue to be heard and finally adjudicated by

the Civil Service Commission.

So that any Federal agency will be able to have the benefit of the best executive manpower management services available, the services to be provided by the Civil Service Commission, such as the Executive Inventory, will be made available to any agency.