House cuts funds for new HR system

House lawmakers have denied the Bush administration's request to fund an Office of Personnel Management effort to expand a new personnel system governmentwide.

The House Appropriations Committee voted June 21 to cut $2.6 million from the Office of Personnel Management’s fiscal 2006 budget. In report language accompanying the bill, appropriators directed OPM "to continue the implementation and refining of the new human resources management systems at the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security before bringing the system to other agencies and departments."

The Treasury, Transportation and independent agencies fiscal 2006 bill now faces a full House vote. The nearest equivalent Senate appropriations subcommittee has yet to markup its bill.

An OPM spokesman had no comment beyond a statement that agency officials will be working with Congress on the administration initiative.

New human resources systems being implemented at DOD and DHS are garnering attention and controversy as they replace the general schedule system of pay and promotion. Extending some of those reforms governmentwide has been a key point of Bush administration plans to reform the internal workings of government.