[Senate Hearing 111-663]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 111-663
NOMINATION OF HON. M. JOHN BERRY
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
of the
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOMINATION OF HON. M. JOHN BERRY TO BE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF PERSONNEL
MANAGEMENT
MARCH 26, 2009
__________
Available via http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html
Printed for the use of the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina
JON TESTER, Montana
ROLAND W. BURRIS, Illinois
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Kristine V. Lam, Professional Staff Member
Thomas Richards, Professional Staff Member, Subcommittee on Oversight
of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of
Columbia
Brandon L. Milhorn, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Jennifer L. Tarr, Minority Counsel
Jennifer A. Hemingway, Minority Staff Director, Subcommittee on
Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the
District of Columbia
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
Patricia R. Hogan, Publications Clerk and GPO Detailee
Laura W. Kilbride, Hearing Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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Opening statements:
Page
Senator Akaka................................................ 1
Senator Voinovich............................................ 4
Prepared statements:
Senator Voinovich............................................ 5
Senator Akaka................................................ 6
Senator Lieberman............................................ 25
WITNESSES
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Hon. Steny H. Hoyer, a Representative in Congress from the State
of Maryland.................................................... 2
Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Maryland....................................................... 3
Hon. M. John Berry to be Director, Office of Personnel Management 8
Alphabetical List of Witnesses
Berry, Hon. M. John Berry:
Testimony.................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 27
Biographical and financial information....................... 31
Responses to pre-hearing questions........................... 37
Letter from the Office of Government Ethics with an attached
letter..................................................... 70
Responses to post-hearing questions.......................... 71
Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L.:
Testimony.................................................... 3
Hoyer, Hon. Steny H.:
Testimony.................................................... 2
APPENDIX
Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, prepared statement.................. 25
NOMINATION OF HON. M. JOHN BERRY
----------
THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:27 p.m., in
room 342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Daniel K. Akaka
presiding.
Present: Senators Akaka and Voinovich.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR AKAKA
Senator Akaka. This hearing will come to order. I want to
say aloha and welcome to all of you. It is obviously a joyous
moment for those who are here today.
Today the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs meets to consider the nomination of John Berry to be
Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Mr. Berry is a native of Washington, DC, and a graduate of
the University of Maryland and the Syracuse University Maxwell
School of Public Administration.
Mr. Berry is a lifelong public servant. He currently is the
Director of the National Zoo, where he successfully shepherded
a 20-year facilities master plan for the zoo, which the
National Capital Planning Commission approved in November 2008.
He has worked in a variety of posts in the Smithsonian
Institution, the Department of the Interior, and the Department
of the Treasury, in addition to serving the people of Maryland
while working in the Montgomery County Government and the
Maryland State Senate.
Of course, Mr. Berry also served as Congressman Steny
Hoyer's Legislative Director for 10 years. With your experience
in Congress, I expect we will have a particularly cooperative
and productive working relationship between OPM and the
Congress if you are confirmed.
I am delighted to welcome my good friends Senator Ben
Cardin and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who are here to
introduce Mr. Berry. We appreciate both of you taking the time
to speak on his behalf and welcome your thoughts. I know you
both are very busy and, in the interest of time, would welcome
any statement you have now.
I am going to call on Senator Cardin to begin, because----
Senator Cardin. Senator Akaka, if I might, if I could defer
to Congressman Hoyer. I think it would be appropriate for him
to go first.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Senator Cardin. At this
moment, I would like to call on Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of
the U.S. House of Representatives, a great man who has served
so well, for his statement and his comments on John Berry.
Congressman Hoyer.
STATEMENT OF HON. STENY H. HOYER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS
FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND
Mr. Hoyer. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for your warm
welcome. I thank my dear friend, one of my closest friends in
life, Senator Cardin for yielding to me.
I am totally subjective on the subject of Mr. Berry.
[Laughter.]
I believe Mr. Berry is one of the most extraordinary, good
and decent and able human beings I have met in my entire
lifetime. I could end my statement perhaps at that point.
Suffice it to say that I think he will perform an extraordinary
service for the Federal employees, for the Obama
Administration, for the Federal Government, and for the
American people. So I thank you for giving me this opportunity.
I first came, Mr. Chairman, to appreciate Mr. Berry's
talents when he served for a decade as my Legislative Director.
You probably first met him in that capacity as you and I were
seatmates on the Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and
General Government of the House Appropriations Committee. We
sat next to one another for many years, along with Chairman
Edward R. Roybal, and your role on that committee was critical.
In the role that Mr. Berry played for me, he was an
essential part of shaping policy affecting all Federal
employees, and the legislation that structures their salaries,
Mr. Chairman, to this day bears Mr. Berry's stamp.
From the beginning of his career in public service, Mr.
Berry has had an excellent grasp of the issues and challenges
confronting our 1.8 million Federal civilian employees. He has
also proven himself as a highly skilled administrator.
As Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget at
the Interior Department, Mr. Berry won the respect of his
employees and repeatedly stood up for government workers who
were targeted for discrimination because of their sexual
orientation. And as Director of the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, he proved himself to be an ardent conservationist
as well.
Today he brings together his skills in administration and
conservation as Director of the National Zoological Park, as
you have pointed out, the job in which he oversees a budget of
nearly $40 million, 240 employees and perhaps most
impressively, more than 2,000 wild animals. As director, he has
dedicated himself to revitalizing the zoo's facilities, as you
pointed out as well, making them safer and more welcoming for
families and attracting thousands of more visitors with such
special events as winter's ZooLights.
He has also strengthened the zoo's standing as an
international leader in animal conservation and research. Those
are just a few, Mr. Chairman and Senator Voinovich, of Mr.
Berry's many accomplishments. They speak to a creative
intellect, and I would stop on that part of my statement.
One of the strengths that Mr. Berry brings to any task that
he confronts is that creativeness, that flexibility, that
willingness to look at things in a different way if the way
that we were looking at them did not work. That was one of the
great strengths he brought to my staff.
I tell people that if there were 100 ways to do something
and you told Mr. Berry each time that he went through the first
99 that he could not do it that way, he would find the 100th
successful way to do it. That will be an extraordinarily
important skill that he will bring to his directorship of the
Office of Personnel Management.
He has a dedication to service that those who have worked
with Mr. Berry know firsthand. It was my privilege, as you
pointed out, to work with him for over a decade and, very
frankly, every year since he left my staff. And of course,
Senator, I tell people they can go off the payroll, but they
cannot go off the staff.
I never really feel that Mr. Berry was ever off the staff
because I worked very closely with him in so many different
ways. I would urge his confirmation with dispatch. I can assure
you that it is my view that he will make all of us very proud--
this Committee, the U.S. Senate, the Obama Administration, and
our country.
I am proud of his leadership, his service, and every
employee who has the benefit of his focus will believe that
they have a true advocate, an able spokesperson, and a very
caring person serving them and serving our government. I thank
you for this opportunity to testify on his behalf.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer of the U.S. House Representatives, for your statement. I
really appreciate this.
Mr. Hoyer. Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. I know you are busy.
Mr. Hoyer. I want to hear Senator Cardin's statement.
[Laughter.]
I know it will be brilliant, and therefore, I want to hear
it. [Laugher.]
And I am very pleased to be with my good friend Senator
Voinovich as well.
Senator Akaka. Without further adieu, Senator Cardin.
STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF MARYLAND
Senator Cardin. I really wanted to be here to see whether
we had to hold Congressman Hoyer in contempt of the Senate. I
am glad that his remarks today were aimed at Mr. Berry and not
beyond.
First let me just concur on everything that the Majority
Leader has said about Mr. Berry. We are very proud of his
public service. We thank you very much for your continued
willingness to want to serve our Nation. We thank you, and we
thank your entire family for the sacrifices that you make.
Steny Hoyer is right; we have an extraordinary person who
has the strong support of Senator Mikulski and myself. Mr.
Berry has devoted his life to public and community service, and
he has done it with great distinction. He has vast
administration experience, which I think is going to serve him
very well at OPM.
He has good judgment and unquestioned integrity, and I
think that really sums it up. We have gone over his background.
He survived serving as the Legislative Director for Congressman
Hoyer. I know that was a difficult task, but he served with
great distinction in the House.
He has great administrative experience in several agencies,
from the Treasury to the Interior to the Smithsonian. He served
in the private sector in a non-profit with the National Fish
and Wildlife Foundation. He brings, I think, the right package
of experience to a very difficult job at OPM, and I
wholeheartedly endorse his nomination and recommend to the
Committee that we move quickly on his confirmation.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Senator Cardin, for
your statement. Again, I want to thank both of you for your
statements, and before I call on our Ranking Member, Senator
Voinovich, I will permit you the chance of departing. Yes?
Mr. Hoyer. I am sticking with you. [Laughter.]
Always good to see you, Senator Cardin.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. Before I call on
Senator Voinovich, I want to welcome the family of John Berry
and give Mr. Berry the opportunity to introduce them to the
Committee.
Mr. Berry. Senator, I am very honored to. Thank you so much
for the opportunity. I would like to start, if I could, with my
sister, Maureen Raimo, and her husband, Arthur Raimo, and her
two children, Anne Buss--her husband is a member of the Capitol
Hill Police Force, sir, and is on duty today, so he could not
be here with us--and her sister, Betsy Raimo, and her
boyfriend, Luke Myers.
My brother is here with his family. My brother, Joseph
Berry, his wife, Jody, and their son, Thomas. And then my
partner, sir, from Honolulu, Hawaii, for the past 12\1/2\
years, Curtis Yee, as well.
Mr. Hoyer. Good planning. [Laughter.]
Mr. Berry. Thank you, sir. Appreciate the opportunity.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. At this moment I am
going to withhold my statement because we have an important
vote on the floor, and the time is running on that. I am going
to yield to Ranking Member Voinovich to make his statement. We
will be back after recess, and I will give my statement, and we
will have Mr. Berry give his statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR VOINOVICH
Senator Voinovich. First of all, I think it is a real
tribute to you that Senator Cardin is here and your old boss
thinks enough of you to come around and say you are a terrific
guy, and the fact that you have stayed in touch with him over
the years is a real tribute to the relationship that you have
built with him.
I have a great deal of respect for Representative Hoyer. We
have known each other a long time. He is one of the good guys
as far as I am concerned.
It is a pleasure for me to review your qualifications. I am
looking forward to hearing your plans for OPM. My experience as
a county auditor, county commissioner, mayor, and governor have
underscored for me the importance of human capital, and one of
the things that I have tried to do, with Senator Akaka, to deal
with our human capital challenges is to give the Office of
Personnel Management the flexibility needed so that our
agencies can hire the right people and retain and reward them.
We know that there is room for improvement, and as I
mentioned to you when you were in my office, I am going to
expect it from you, and I suspect that Senator Akaka will also.
After you get in the saddle, I want you to come back to us to
talk about your observations and what needs to be done at OPM.
But immediately, I think you really need to look at the
issue of the people that the Administration is going to need in
their respective departments to implement the stimulus package.
Senator Akaka and I have asked the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) to come back to us with a list of the agencies and
where are they in terms of the people that you are going to
need.
In many instances, the jobs will be short-term, but
agencies will still struggle with the question of how to bring
them on board. There are lots of flexibilities that are
available to departments, and one of my frustrations, and
Senator Akaka's, is people are not using them.
We really are unhappy with our hiring system. We are in the
dark ages if you look at where we are compared with the private
sector.
We have a little break right now, Mr. Berry, because of the
fact that the economy is so bad, and I think a lot of our
Federal workers are going to want to stay on a little longer
than they might ordinarily. But the fact is, things are going
to get better and we are going to be out there competing for
the best and the brightest, and if we do not have a recruitment
or a program in place that makes sense, we are going to fall
behind.
So that is the end of my statement. We look forward to
working with you.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR VOINOVICH
Good afternoon, and thank you, Chairman Akaka. It is a pleasure to
be here today to review the qualifications of Mr. John Berry to be
Director of the Office of Personnel Management. Mr. Berry, I applaud
your continued commitment to public service, and look forward to
hearing your plans for ensuring OPM and the Federal Government as a
whole manages its most important asset--its workforce.
My own experience as County Auditor, County Commissioner, Mayor,
and Governor has taught me that, of all the things in which government
can invest, resources dedicated to human capital bring the greatest
return.
Our nation is grappling with significant challenges--from the
foreclosure crisis to record levels of unemployment. At the same time,
our deficit continues to grow. Federal agencies are struggling to hire
the workforce needed to meet current and future challenges, including
responsibly allocating the almost $790 billion in stimulus funds and
processing the backlog of 767,000 Social Security disability claims. At
the same time, agencies must prepare for the retirement of many
experienced workers to ensure their knowledge is not lost with their
departure from federal service.
The only way the Federal Government will succeed in accomplishing
its many missions is if we improve our ability to recruit and retain a
world class workforce and then recognize their daily contributions to
improving government performance.
Mr. Berry, you seek this nomination at a critical time in OPM's
history. Federal agencies are not fully engaged in strategic human
capital planning. Key agencies remain at the bottom of the Best Places
to Work rankings. Federal annuitants have been waiting for a modern
retirement processing system since 1984. Individuals in need of access
to classified information are forced to rely on antiquated systems. Job
announcements make a poor impression on those who want to make a
difference. As OPM's role continues to evolve, its workforce must be
structured to tackle these challenges. In addition, OPM's human
resource products must offer better value to agency customers.
Mr. Berry, I look forward to hearing how you will lead OPM in
tackling these challenges. If confirmed, I would ask you to report to
the subcommittee in 90 days with your short, near, and long-term
priorities; so we can assist you in meeting them on behalf of our
nation's public servants and the people they serve.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. I was going to
interrupt him to say that I regard Senator Voinovich as a
champion of human capital and so I am fortunate to be working
with him on this and look forward to doing that.
I understand we have less than 5 minutes left in a vote, so
this Committee will be in recess for a few minutes.
[Recess.]
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much for being so patient.
This hearing will come to order.
Mr. Berry has filed responses to a biographical and
financial questionnaire, answered pre-hearing questions
submitted by the Committee, and had his financial statements
reviewed by the Office of Government Ethics. Without objection,
this information will be made a part of the record, with the
exception of the financial data, which is on file and available
for public inspection at the Committee offices.
Before I left, I said that I would make an opening
statement, but at this time, I will ask unanimous consent that
my statement be included in the record.
[The prepared statement of Senator Akaka follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR AKAKA
Today, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
meets to consider the nomination of John Berry to be Director of the
Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Mr. Berry is a native of Washington, D.C. and a graduate of the
University of Maryland and Syracuse University Maxwell School of Public
Administration. Mr. Berry is a life-long public servant. He currently
is the Director of the National Zoo, where he successfully shepherded a
20-year facilities master plan for the zoo, which the National Capital
Planning Commission approved in November 2008. He has worked in a
variety of posts in the Smithsonian Institution, the Department of the
Interior, and the Department of the Treasury, in addition to serving
the people of Maryland while working in the Montgomery County
Government and the Maryland State Senate. Of course, Mr. Berry also
served as Congressman Steny Hoyer's Legislative Director for 10 years.
The Federal Government and its workforce are under a tremendous
amount of pressure. We are fighting two wars overseas and trying to
guide the recovery of our struggling economy. People are looking to the
Federal Government for strong, effective leadership from the most
senior officials to the front-line employees. Having the right talent
in the right jobs is more important now than ever. If confirmed as
Director of OPM, you will be vital to confronting this challenge and
helping agencies meet their workforce needs and their missions.
Since 2001, Strategic Human Capital Management has been included in
the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) annual High Risk Series
report. Furthermore, GAO considers strategic human capital management
as a critical element in 18 of the 30 high risk areas. Successful human
capital management requires real focus and bold leadership.
As you know, Senator Voinovich and I have worked very hard on this
Subcommittee to address the human capital challenges in the Federal
Government. We have provided agencies many flexibilities, which too
often are going unused. We must do more to make the Federal Government
the employer of choice. As more of the federal workforce becomes
eligible for retirement, we must look to the next generation of federal
workers. A wave of new employees with similar aspirations, but
different career expectations, is ready to take on the call to service.
One way to do this is for OPM to support competitive benefits for
employees at all points in their careers. OPM must help agencies
implement recruitment, hiring, and on-boarding processes that attract a
highly-talented workforce. Another is to improve the federal hiring
process. The current process is too confusing, too complicated, and too
long. I believe the hiring process must be streamlined, timely, and
informative to applicants while maintaining the merit system principles
including Veterans' Preference. Agencies must be held accountable for
modernizing their hiring processes so that qualified employees from a
diverse range of backgrounds can be brought on board in a timely
manner.
Managers must be held accountable for improving morale and
productivity so that we are able to retain employees as well. I believe
training can go a long way to support this goal. Earlier this week, I
introduced the Federal Supervisor Training Act to provide initial and
ongoing management training to all supervisors in the Federal
Government. Agencies would be required to train supervisors on
management and leadership skills, mentoring, prohibited personnel
practices, and ways to foster an environment of fairness, respect, and
equal opportunity based on the merit of employees' work.
As you know, last year also I introduced a bill that would have
reestablished Labor-Management Partnerships. I understand that the
Administration is considering reestablishing partnerships. I believe
that this will go a long way toward rebuilding a collaborative
relationship with employee unions and managers.
The need for stronger labor-management partnership has been evident
in efforts at personnel and performance management reforms over the
last few years. Congress granted broad personnel authorities to the
Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, but
these Departments' efforts have been plagued by concerns about
fairness, transparency, and accountability. Greater cooperation with
federal employees could have improved the reform proposals and,
importantly, employees' perceptions of them. With a new Administration,
we have an opportunity for a strategic pause. I am pleased that OPM and
DOD are planning a review of the National Security Personnel System,
and I look forward to those results and recommendations. I hope that
you will work closely with federal employee unions and other
stakeholder groups as you consider personnel reforms.
In his address before Congress on February 24, 2009, President
Obama called for a renewed spirit of national service for this and
future generations. The federal workplace should be a model workplace,
and every federal worker should feel proud to work for the Federal
Government. Civil servants should feel a sense of honor, duty, and
importance to the Nation, and carry that feeling with them into work
every day. In turn, I believe employees will work better, be more
productive, and inspire the confidence of the American people in the
work of their government. In this new role you will not only be the
steward of employees' rights, paychecks, and performance, you will also
be responsible for inspiring the renewed spirit of service in the
Federal Government and the next generation of federal employees. I look
forward to working with you and hope that we can work together to
address the challenges of the modern workforce.
Senator Akaka. Our Committee rules require that all
witnesses at nomination hearings give their testimony under
oath. Mr. Berry, I ask you to please stand and raise your right
hand.
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to
give this Committee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, so help you, God?
Mr. Berry. I do.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. Let it be noted in the record
that the witness answered in the affirmative.
Mr. Berry, I apologize for the delay. We had three votes
instead of one. Please proceed with your statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. M. JOHN BERRY \1\ TO BE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Mr. Berry. Mr. Chairman and Senator Voinovich, thank you so
much. I am deeply honored to be here with you today and
appreciate you taking this time to hear from me.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Berry appears in the Appendix on
page 27.
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My entire career has been one of public service, both as an
employee and a manager. I was raised to appreciate the
importance of service and the opportunity for good that it
affords. My father volunteered for the Marine Corps before
Pearl Harbor and was in the 1st Marine Division at Guadalcanal.
My Uncle Jack, for whom I am named, served as a Marine fighter
pilot and lost his life in battle in the Pacific. My mother
worked full time as an x-ray technician, but also served with
the Census Bureau in her later years.
It was the highest honor of my life when President Obama
called to ask me to serve his Administration in this critically
important position. I only wish my parents had lived to see
this day, as it was their firm belief in the power of
education, their love of country, and their constant and
enduring love for me, my sister, and my brother that made this
day and opportunity possible.
Our country today faces many challenges. I believe that the
reason our Nation has not only faced, but overcome, every
challenge in our history is because during every one of those
times, men and women of goodwill, keen minds, and strong hearts
have always stepped forward to aid their Nation through
service, both in government and in our armed forces.
The civil service today carries forward that proud American
tradition. Whether it is defending our homeland against attack,
restoring confidence in our financial systems and administering
an historic stimulus effort, ensuring adequate healthcare for
our veterans and fellow citizens, or searching for cures to the
diseases that plague us, we are fortunate to have the best and
the brightest to rely upon.
It is our people who are our most important tool in facing
any challenge, and we forget that at our peril. I pledge to
this Committee that if I am confirmed, I will, to the best of
my abilities, work my heart out on behalf of the men and women
of our civil service, both active and retired, and defend the
merit system with the same rigor as Teddy Roosevelt.
Just as he established a firm foundation for the success of
the civil service in the 20th Century, we must today bring the
same vigor to guarantee a civil service ready for the
challenges of the 21st Century. The pressures and demands on
OPM are great, nearly as serious as those of its predecessor,
the Civil Service Commission, which it successfully met in the
1930s and 1940s.
I believe OPM and its talented employees are ready to rise
to these new challenges once again. We face a new reality. In
the next decade, there will be a significant increase in the
percentage of Federal employees eligible to retire. We need to
consider and craft creative approaches that will allow us to
engage the skills and experience of our own retirees and the
Nation's aging population.
At the same time, we must balance our response to this
trend with training, mentoring, and providing opportunities for
promotion for the new generation entering and advancing through
our workforce. The youth of today may not envision staying with
one employer for the entirety of their careers.
We need to balance and mix flexible benefit approaches
attractive to younger entrants to the workforce with our
existing more traditional model to appeal to the broadest
possible range of workers. We need to reach out and attract, as
I have said, the best and the brightest from all backgrounds
and walks of life and recognize that in our fast changing
world, we must constantly develop job skills through training.
We must commit to training our managers as well to enable
them to face the many complex challenges that confront us
today. We need to expect the best from every worker, and we
must ensure effective approaches to encouraging, evaluating,
and rewarding superior performance as well as correcting
shortfalls. In exchange, we need to provide competitive pay and
benefits, healthy model workplace environments, and sensitivity
to employees' responsibility to their families and loved ones.
Finally, we need to honor those who have served their
country well, both in the armed services and in the civil
service, by ensuring their dignity during their retirement. It
is my opinion that as the Nation's largest employer, we should
be its model employer. We should seek to adopt the best
practices for every piece of our human resource operation.
One of the first things I would seek to do if confirmed
would be to convene a good cross section of practitioners and
thinkers from across the government involving the private
sector, the non-profit world, academia, unions and managers who
can help us define what are the current best practices in use
today across the Nation.
I look forward to learning from them what has worked well
and what has failed, and I look forward to working with you and
your staff to build a consensus for what might be possible in
advancing our government toward the title of model employer.
I ask for your support, both now and if confirmed, in the
years ahead, as we seek to maintain the finest civil service of
the world.
Thank you, and I am prepared to answer any questions that
you might have.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Mr. Berry. I will begin
with the standard questions that this Committee asks of all
nominees. First, is there anything you are aware of in your
background that might present a conflict of interest with the
duties of the office to which you have been nominated?
Mr. Berry. Nothing that I am aware of, sir.
Senator Akaka. Second, do you know of anything, personal or
otherwise, that would in any way prevent you from fully and
honorably discharging the responsibilities of the office to
which you have been nominated?
Mr. Berry. Not that I am aware of, sir.
Senator Akaka. And finally, do you agree without
reservation to respond to any reasonable summons to appear and
testify before any duly constituted committee of Congress if
you are confirmed?
Mr. Berry. I do.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. Mr. Berry, I should
tell you, much of what you mentioned in your statement sounds
like what Senator Voinovich and I have talked about in the
past, and of course, we look forward to working with you to
implement those ideas.
There are many challenges facing human capital management
in the Federal Government, including addressing staffing
shortages in critical occupations, modernizing Federal
benefits, fixing the broken hiring process, and a variety of
other issues. If confirmed, what will be your top priorities?
Mr. Berry. I think, Mr. Chairman, just to expand a little
bit, when I say that I would like the Federal Government to be
the best employer, the model employer for the country, I sort
of shortened my statement. I hope, with your indulgence, the
whole statement would be included in the record.
I think of that as in each category of our human resource
management functions, so if you break that into the traditional
functions that you think of--recruitment, hiring, retention,
pay and benefits, appraisal systems, discipline systems,
retirement, labor management relations--in each of those we
ought to be following the best practices.
We need to put in place what works, and I believe that in
many instances, the Federal Government may already be using the
model practice. We may be the model employer in a number of
those areas, but in other areas, there is no question but that
we have to do better. I know that you and Senator Voinovich
have been leaders in examining each of these processes and have
put in place many great improvements over the years.
Hiring is one function that is still broken, and despite
all of our best efforts, the civil servants at OPM have worked
very hard and tirelessly to put in place and to take advantage
of new authorities which you have all given to the agency, but
it still is an arduous process and often times we are losing
good talent. We are not getting the best and the brightest
because they have already been snatched away or hired to other
positions.
And so I think the first task is to determine what are
those best practices, but it is clear that hiring has to be the
first and foremost objective in looking at those practices to
make that work better.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. You mentioned that you would like
your statement to be included in the record. It will be
included in the record.
Mr. Berry. Thank you, sir.
Senator Akaka. Mr. Berry, the Partnership for Public
Service ranked OPM 25th out of the 30 large Federal agencies in
its 2007 rankings of the best places to work in the Federal
Government. Strategic management and effective leadership were
two of OPM's lowest scores.
In addition to your government-wide human resources role as
the head of OPM, you will be responsible for improving the
management and human capital in your own agency. How do you
plan to tackle this challenge?
Mr. Berry. I think, Mr. Chairman, it is the approach--good
management, I believe, works the same everywhere. It is the job
of the director, of the leader of an agency, to lay out a very
clear vision for what he or she expects the agency to be
accomplishing. I look forward to doing that if I am confirmed.
You have heard essentially my vision today is I want us to
be the best, the model employer for the country, and for the
world, for that matter. Everything that I will do will flow
from that vision. I believe that the strategic plan that would
have to be put in place will have to identify clear and
measurable steps, for which we will be accountable to the
Congress and to the Committee and, quite frankly, to the
employees, that we are making solid progress toward that
ultimate vision of being the best, of identifying what are the
short-term, medium-term, and longer-term steps that need to be
taken to accomplish that, and then to go after them full bore
with enthusiasm.
I am a believer that a leader has to be a person of good
cheer. I think optimism is the nectar of progress, and if you
believe in your vision and you empower your people to work
toward that end and hold them accountable as you go--regularly
checking in and saying how are we doing, are we making clear
progress toward the goals that we would set up for how we are
measuring ourselves to be the best, the model workforce--we
will get clear, defined progress toward that goal, I would
hope, over my tenure.
I think right now that is what the employees at OPM are
desirous of. They want a clear vision. They know how important
the mission is to protect the merit system. They know how
critical it is to get the best and the brightest in. They are
not defenders of red tape. They want to make this work right.
My commitment to you is I will run to keep up with them and
make sure that together we accomplish the vision that I am
promising you today.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. Let me call on Senator
Voinovich for his questions to you.
Senator Voinovich. I would like to follow-up a little bit
on what Senator Akaka was talking about. The issue is how would
you go about management and employee satisfaction? Are there
best practices or agencies that you would visit that have best
practices to find out what they are doing? I get the impression
that you are going to go in, kind of look it over, and then do
it yourself. Are you familiar with Linda Springer's plans?
Mr. Berry. Absolutely, Senator. First, if I conveyed that I
would do it myself, I did not mean to do such. A leader is a
member of a team and can only go as far as the team will take
him. Leadership is a two-way street. You need to lay out a
vision, but then you need to listen to your team on how to
implement that vision.
I think Director Springer's strategic plan was a good one
for her period, and it has essentially come to its end. It
needs to, as any strategic plan, be renegotiated, rebuilt in
light of a new Administration and a new team. That needs to be
done in concert with the other Federal human resource officers
across the government.
I think the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) panel that
has been put in place is a wonderful model. Having the human
resource managers and the human capital officers regularly get
together would be my intention. I would be an active
participant and the chair of the organization, convening it
regularly, setting the agenda, listening to what the issues of
the day for those folks are so that we can be responsive.
Senator Voinovich. What I am really interested in is the
method that you would go about to review and improve OPM as the
new boss. You have 5,800 working for you. What is your vision
for the organization? What are you going to do in order to move
OPM out of a place where the people do not feel that good about
the management and where employee satisfaction is low?
Mr. Berry. The first thing you do is get a team in place,
and so I would be working with the President to appoint a team.
I think he has made three outstanding appointments that I am
aware of, so far that I have been consulted on in that process
as well, and if I was confirmed----
Senator Voinovich. Are you happy with those people?
Mr. Berry. Very much so, sir. I think each one of the three
that have been announced would classify in anyone's standard as
amongst the best and the brightest in their fields. They are
outstanding professionals, and I would very much look forward
to working with them.
Essentially, three out of the five have already been named,
and my understanding is the remaining two are just on the cusp
of being named in the near future and----
Senator Voinovich. Actually, there are six appointments to
the OPM that are presidential appointments.
Mr. Berry. Right. Two more are ready to go. The third one
is teed up a little farther down the line. But I think the goal
is first to get a team together. That is job one.
Job two is to meet with all of the employees, with the
managers, with each of the units of OPM, get a firm
understanding of what is going on in the agency and then have
town hall meetings where you can meet with all of the employees
of OPM to allow open access in terms of what is going on, what
are the biggest issues of your concern, what do you think has
been working well, what do you think needs more attention, and
hear that, and allow accessibility.
I hope that is not going to be a once-a-month event. We
will have regular meetings if I am confirmed in this position,
but we will also have other forums to accept information from
all employees. We will have Websites, which are essentially
open suggestion boxes, and the ombudsman role in agencies where
I have been has been a very effective one. If people feel there
is something that they do not want to stand up and put their
name on, but it is still important and needs attention, they
can go to the ombudsman and bring it forward.
So my goal would be to throw that net within the agency,
but you do not stop at the borders of the agency in my opinion.
You have to throw that net throughout the Federal Government
because OPM is a servant of the Federal Government. We are
there to service the other agencies.
And we cannot just be meeting with the CHCO panel. We need
to meet with the secretaries, the deputy secretaries. I need to
go around and meet with each agency, not only at the senior
levels, but also to give the same opportunities to the
employees there. What do you feel works in your agency with
human resources? What do you think needs attention?
I look forward to being able to do that. I think the Public
Service Commission has done a great job with that. There is a
lot of work that has been done between Grant Thornton and these
committees, so you are not starting from scratch, but I think
it is important for any new director, whomever you would put
into this position, to be willing to go out and do the shoe
leather, not to run this office from the office at 19th and E
Street. The Director has to be omnipresent throughout the
Federal Government, and it would be my intention to do that.
Senator Voinovich. I am concerned about that because the
best way I think that you can help other agencies is to get
your agency working the way it should in terms of management
and in terms of employee satisfaction so that you can use your
agency as a role model. If your agency is working like a top,
then you are going to be able to service the rest of these
other agencies in the Federal Government.
Mr. Berry. Right.
Senator Voinovich. You are going to have to spend the next
couple of years really shaping up OPM. If you can streamline
the hiring process, just think of not only the change it will
make in your agency, but what impact that will have on the rest
of the other Federal agencies. The same thing with the
retirement system. They tried to modernize the system, but we
still keep the records for retirees with pieces of paper.
Senator Akaka and I have introduced legislation to deal
with people who want to work at the tail end of their career on
a part-time basis where that will not interfere with the status
of their annuities. In agencies where you are bringing on new
people, it is a way to keep them in place and to get the
benefit of their knowledge and experience.
But I really think that your main goal is to shape up OPM
and be the No. 1 agency in terms of employee satisfaction. Go
over to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has the best
record of them all, and say, what are you doing over here that
makes a difference and can I copy some of the ideas that you
have here in my agency?
I think your idea of meeting with your managers is a
terrific idea. I lobbied this place for 18 years as a mayor and
as a governor, and I saw one Administration after another and
the new secretaries came in, the deputy secretaries, the
assistant secretaries, and all the rest of them, and it always
seemed that what they did is they ignored the A-team, the team
that was there, the team that knew what was going on, and
rarely did they get asked how they could improve their own
performance.
That is the kind of stuff that I would like to see, and
later on, if you get in the saddle, I think we will have you
back maybe to visit with you about that.
Mr. Berry. Great.
Senator Voinovich. Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Senator Voinovich. Mr.
Berry, for more than a decade, departments and agencies have
sought and been granted personnel authorities outside of a
government-wide framework. Many have claimed that their unique
missions require unique flexibilities.
This has created multiple personnel systems across the
Federal Government, even within departments and agencies. Do
you believe this is efficient and effective, or is a more
comprehensive approach needed?
Mr. Berry. Mr. Chairman, I think the Federal Government may
be so big, I do not want to say that one size will fit all. I
do not have any sacred cow, if you will, that I come into this
with other than one principle and that is the merit principles,
which basically say we should hire people who can do the job
because they have the skills to do the job and we evaluate them
by how well they do that job and nothing else.
And that has to be the pole star. That has to be our
constant sort of evaluative tool. If we are protecting that,
then I think we can look at flexibilities and differences, but
at some point, we have to be careful, and I think you raised
this in your question, sir.
The Federal Government does have to treat like employees
similarly, and we cannot say to one employee over here who
risked his life and is doing everything that he can to serve
his country, to the employee over here who is doing the exact
same thing on a day-by-day basis, well this person gets paid
more than you do or this person is treated differently than you
are.
We have to be careful about that. I think there can be
periods where there may be flexibilities that we can do fairly
and legally and meet our constitutional standards. But we do
need to periodically step back and look at it and say, is it
still accomplishing the objective we want? Is it protecting the
merit system principle? And is it accomplishing the objective
we want of having the best and the brightest?
And if it is, then we might be able to still allow those
flexibilities. If not, I think we need to work together, the
Congress and the Executive Branch, to look at these to ensure
that there is fairness across the board and not duplication.
Sometimes things are started with a very good intent, and
they might work for awhile, but then over time they fall into
the same bad habits, if you will, that the old system had. If
it is not working, whether it be an old system or a new system,
we ought to change it, we ought to fix it. It ought to work,
and it ought to be the best. That is the spirit that I would
bring to this.
I do not come into this with any ideological bent of saying
everything has to be the same or we have to protect everything
that is in existence. We need to look at everything with fresh
eyes and say, is it the best? Is this doing what we want it to
do? And do that jointly. I know the passion that you and
Senator Voinovich have brought to these issues over your entire
careers; you have a wealth of experience and insights into
these issues, and you hear from your constituents.
We need to incorporate that into the evaluation of these
systems and make sure we are doing the right thing. So, bottom
line, Senators, if you confirm me, I do not come into this with
any pre-disposition, no prejudice, if you will, other than
accomplishing the best and what works the best.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. During the previous
Administration, Mr. Berry, employee unions and other
stakeholder groups often were not given an opportunity to have
meaningful input into major policy initiatives. Having a buy-in
from key stakeholder groups goes a long way to ensuring the
success of any initiative.
How do you plan to engage employee stakeholder groups and
provide them an avenue to provide meaningful input into policy
initiatives?
Mr. Berry. Mr. Chairman, I think that is a great question,
and I fully agree that we need to work in partnership. Labor
and management need to work together to accomplish the same
objective, which is the service of the American public and
providing the best service to the American public.
I have been honored to work at the Treasury Department, the
Interior Department, and at the Smithsonian Institution. At
each of those places, to varying degrees, I have been able to
improve and enhance that sense of partnership. It is not a hard
thing to do if you are willing to have open and fair
communication. That is one of the first tests.
My promise to both sides, both our management organizations
and our labor organizations, is if I am confirmed in this
position, there will not be surprises. I am not a shoot-from-
the-hip kind of guy. I will bring them all in on a regular
basis, and they will have open access to me. I believe our job
is to also make sure that is going on in each of the agencies.
We need to create that spirit of partnership, and if you
have that open and transparent sense of communication and
trust, then great things can happen. At the Department of the
Interior, when I got there, a lot of the things that you all
have been talking about today were in existence. The political
appointees were not appreciating the career civil servants.
There was not good communication between the political and the
career side.
There was not good communication between labor and
management. And one of the things I did was to roll my sleeves
up and say, this has to be different. We cannot work unless
this is hand-in-glove. If you approach it with that spirit--by
the time I left, I think anyone would tell you, whether they be
on the labor side of the aisle or the management side of the
aisle, that partnership worked. It worked well, and it produced
great things for the employees.
The morale went up. The sense of pride in mission went up,
and quite frankly, the effectiveness of the agency went up as a
result as well.
So it is essential that we do well. If you give me this
job, I will work hard at making sure that happens both within
OPM and throughout the government.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much for that. Just to go
back to what Senator Voinovich was expressing here, if you can
do all of this within your agency and make it work, then we can
use it in other places as well.
Let me call on Senator Voinovich for further questions.
Senator Voinovich. As Chairman and now Ranking Member of
the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the
Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia since 1999, I
have worked hard to enact flexibilities to ensure the Federal
Government has the right people with the right knowledge and
skills at the right place and at the right time. If you look at
the screw ups that have happened during the last number of
years, it is basically because we have not had those people.
We provided flexibilities, and quite frankly, as I
mentioned earlier, agencies have not used them. It is
discouraging that they are available and they are not being
used. That is where OPM should be out there talking to folks
about why agencies are not using these flexibilities.
Others, such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), have
received unique authority outside of Title 5, and it is
interesting that they remain at the top of the best places to
work rankings.
What I would like to know is, what are your views on
whether government-wide recruitment, retention, and relocation
incentives should be continued, perhaps enhanced, or whether
individual Executive Branch agencies should be authorized to
establish their own personnel systems?
Mr. Berry. Senator, I think those are incredibly powerful
tools and you and the Chairman and members in the House have
been forward thinking in establishing them. The Federal
Government needs to utilize them.
You cannot get the best and the brightest unless you have
those tools to compete, and you have provided them. We need to
make them effective. We need to make sure that agencies
understand that they have them and utilize them fully because
otherwise you cannot be competitive.
Relocation benefits is a classic case. I have worked in
situations where before that authority existed, when the
Federal Government could not offer that, we would regularly
lose people because it costs $10,000 to $20,000 to move your
family from the Midwest or from the West Coat to the East, or
vice versa, and people cannot pay that out of their own
pockets, especially when you look at the economy today. So as
an employer, we have to take advantage of those flexibilities,
and we have to make them work.
I look forward to working with you. I am a big supporter of
do not lose tools in the tool belt, and you have been kind
enough to give them. If they are about to expire, I hope you
will help us to extend them.
Senator Voinovich. The security clearance process has been
on the high-risk list since 1990. As much as we have tried to
change that, we have not been successful, have we Senator
Akaka?
And there was a major undertaking by the four or five
agencies involved, including OPM.
Are you at all familiar with the work that they have done?
Mr. Berry. Senator, I think a great deal of that is
classified, and so I have not been able to access it in
preparing for this hearing. I can tell you as someone who has
held five security clearances in his government service, the
highest being Code Word, above Top Secret, when I was at the
Treasury Department, there are major problems with it, and
there are duplications.
For example, in my own case, Sister Hilarian was my first
grade teacher. After that was verified in 1985, I am not sure
why Sister Hilarian has to be re-approached every time as if
she has never been talked to before. So I can just tell you, my
experience with it is it seems to be duplicative. Now I
recognize we have to move with extreme caution in this area.
The Defense Department, the National Counterterrorism Center,
and the Homeland Security Department--we will have to work in
deep concert with them because this is too important to mess
up.
You cannot screw this up. But at the same time, there have
to be great efficiencies that can be achieved here, and I would
look forward, if I was confirmed in the job, to working with
all of those agencies to try to make it more efficient.
Senator Voinovich. Well at this stage of the game, the
Department of Defense, the Office of Management and Budget, the
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Office of
the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs,
and OPM have developed plans to improve the timeliness and
effectiveness of the security clearance process.
They have set goals for 2009, and obviously you have not
had a chance to familiarize yourself with the details, but I
would like you to do that, and I would like to find out whether
or not you support those plans and those goals.
Mr. Berry. Yes, sir.
Senator Voinovich. OPM and the Army have worked to
demonstrate electronic receipt of personnel security
investigation results from OPM. I would hope that you would
continue to work with the agencies to expand that technology.
People are not aware of this, but the backlog of security
clearances, particularly with private contractors, is costing
us a lot of money.
Mr. Berry. It is huge. And it, quite frankly, is a
vulnerability to the country, Senator, because if we do not
have the right people in these jobs and the job is vacant
because of the time delay, it could be creating a serious
vulnerability in leaving ourselves open to something that we do
not want to happen.
So it needs to be faster. It needs to be more efficient,
and my pledge to you would be that I recognize this is a long-
standing issue. I know the attention that has been brought to
this. A lot of people have worked on it. If you give me the
job, I will add my skills to this and see if I can help bring
improvements forward for you.
Senator Voinovich. I make one suggestion to you. Get a hold
of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) because they are
the ones that do the rating that informs the high-risk list.
Find out what is causing them heartburn. I will not be around,
but I would love to know that this is not still on the high-
risk list. If you could knock that off the list, that is a big
gold star.
Mr. Berry. Sir, I will work very hard on that. It is
critical for the safety of the country and for our citizens,
and so I would devote the attention and time and energy to this
to see if we could bring that gold star home.
Senator Voinovich. Great.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Senator Voinovich. Let
me ask my final questions here, Mr. Berry. I think we agree
that we need to make the Federal Government--and this is what
Senator Voinovich and I have talked about--the employee of
choice for the best talent in America, and you have mentioned
that too in your statements.
According to a recent report from the Partnership for
Public Service, government and public service are the most
popular industries for undergraduate students. As the economy
continues to struggle, the stability of government service
becomes even more attractive. It is important for agencies to
seize the opportunity to bring in top notch talent, especially
to meet the pressing need to manage and oversee economic
recovery spending.
How do you plan to help agencies quickly hire highly
qualified employees to meet current needs and to ensure that
the Federal Government fulfills your vision of being the
Nation's model employer over the longer term?
Mr. Berry. Mr. Chairman, I think, thankfully, OPM has
already been hard at work on one of those. I think there are
two critical positions, if you will, classifications that are
essential to the success of the stimulus effort. The first is
contracting officers. If we do not have good contracting
officers, there is an awful lot of money that is going to be
spent out there, and it will be spent poorly.
We need to ensure it is going to be spent well. We have to
have professionals doing that job, and we need them fast. And
this is one where OPM has awarded direct hire authority to
agencies. We need to look at what else we can do, and that is
one where I think you all have looked at retirement
flexibilities.
Maybe we might be able to bring back some of these folks
who have specific skills in this set for limited terms to help
in these situations. So we need to do everything we can to get
good, sound expertise into procurement positions as fast as we
can.
The second most important one, and it is critical, it is a
great opportunity for us. My experience in both the public
sector and in the non-profit sector is during tough times when
agency budgets decline, the first thing that happens in the
non-profit world is education positions get cut.
In the public sector, the first thing that gets cut are
human resource professionals. They always believe, and they
believe it erroneously, that we are not going to be hiring
people, or not as many, so we do not need as many people in our
shop right now. So they whittle that down.
Well then something comes along where you have to hire
people fast and now you have a skeleton crew, and they are
expected to preserve the merit principles and hire the best and
the brightest, but to do the workload that is 5, 10, 100 times
greater than what was expected of them when those cuts were
originally made, and we need to rebuild that human resource
function in the agencies.
So my hope, if I am given this job, is that OPM can take
advantage of this opportunity and develop a short list. In
other words, short circuit the process. Create a pool of human
resource professionals that they have already vetted, that they
have done the talent search on, that they have allowed
competitive examination and application on so that you can say
to agencies, look, Secretary of Commerce, here is a pool. If
you need a human resource officer, you can meet the folks in
this pool. If you like them, hire them on the spot. You do not
need to do anything more.
Keep interviewing them until you find somebody you like and
hire them and get them to work the next day. I think if we can
do that with human resource professional jobs in this
situation, we may be able to rebuild some of the damage that
has been done throughout the government in our human resource
function right now and put in place the people that we are
going to need to rely on for all of these other areas that we
have been talking about today.
I think those are just two opportunities, two very
critical, important opportunities, and as we find out through
the process that there are others we need to address, we are
going to have to jump in with that same approach. But kind of
like, Senator, you were saying, make your own agency work. I
think look homeward angle is a good practice.
In this case, maybe we cannot fix everything, but let us
say we fix two, and if we got those two to work well and work
right, then we can use that as a model to move on to the next
one and the third one and the fourth one and keep going and
just hopefully keep moving forward, forward, forward. That is
the spirit which I will try to bring.
Senator Akaka. Mr. Berry, one of OPM's many roles is to
help veterans----
Mr. Berry. Yes, sir.
Senator Akaka [continuing]. Return to the workforce and
find Federal employment and understand how veterans' preference
works. OPM has a website that serves as a resource, but I am
concerned that OPM is not doing enough. How would you ensure
that agencies use veterans' preference properly and help
veterans seeking Federal employment?
Mr. Berry. Mr. Chairman, there is no more serious
responsibility of the Director of OPM. Our men and women who
put themselves in harm's way to protect our freedoms deserve
the absolute best service when they return. I will be a
passionate defender of veterans' preference. It is a wonderful
program. It has been in place since the Civil War, and it has
been an effective tool to help us reengage people who come back
from serving their country and putting themselves in harm's
way.
I believe we cannot just stop with the point system. We
fail if that is all we do, is give them the points. We have to
give them the training. We have to give them the accommodation.
Many of these people are disabled. We need to put in place and
make simple, for the agencies, the technologies and the
abilities to employ these folks, and that can be done very
centrally.
One of the things I did at the Department of the Interior
that I was most proud of was we created one center for
disability technologies that any bureau of the Department of
the Interior could go and use, and if someone came in and said
look, we have someone who has a sight impairment or we have
someone who needs a special tool to do their job, it was that
agency's job to work to find the solution. The Defense
Department does a super job at this, and they would work with
Defense, but sometimes in the government, we do not have the
solution.
We would go to the private sector to find the solution, and
that person's job was to find it no matter what and make it
work. And then that tool was there that allowed us to actually
bring the person who really was not disabled. My experience is,
disability is a terrible term. They are differently abled. They
often times have greater skills and greater senses to offer to
us if we can just give them the tools to succeed.
So I think we let our veterans down when we stop the
process at the point system. We need to make it a full
reengagement process, and we need to work not only within OPM,
but within all the Federal Government to give full access to
technologies, to tools, and to retraining so that we can get
the best out of their services, and they can continue to serve
their country in a civil capacity.
Senator Akaka. This is my final question. I know you will
be doing a lot of studying and learning to get up to speed on
all of the details of Federal personnel policy and the workings
of OPM, and I am confident in your ability to do so. As you
approach these new topics and issues, what will be your guiding
principles in making policy decisions?
Mr. Berry. Mr. Chairman, that is an easy answer for me and
it is what is the right way, what is the best way? My
experience has been if you put those two questions first and
foremost all the time, you will always end up further ahead
than you otherwise would. I grew up in a house where, as I
mentioned in my statement, my mom and dad were both
Republicans. My brother is a Republican, and my sister and I
are Democrats.
We used to have very interesting dinner conversations, but
you could not grow up in our household and not recognize that
nobody, no party, no person has a lock on the truth. You get
through that by being fair and open and communicating with
people and striving to find what is the right way, what is the
best way.
And so through my experience, I think you have seen this,
sir, over the 25 years in which I have been very pleased and
honored to work with you from many different angles and
capacities, that is how I approach every challenge. I do not
look at what is--just because we have been doing it that way
for 50 years.
People wherever I have worked will tell you, the first
question out of my mouth is always, wait a minute, what is the
right way, what is the best way, and let us not rest until we
find it. We may have to compromise along the way. It may be a
bridge too far today, but we can at least be working toward it.
That is the spirit that I would bring to this, sir, if you
honor me by confirming me.
Senator Akaka. Thank you so much for your responses to my
questions. Senator Voinovich.
Senator Voinovich. We had a chance to talk about this when
you were in the office. I have been very interested in
performance management, and I notice that the President has
made a big deal out of the fact that he is interested in
performance.
One of the ways you improve performance is by performance
evaluation and letting your folks know whether they are doing a
good job or not doing a good job, but more important than that,
folding them into the management and setting some goals for
them in terms of how the various parts of your agency are
operating so they really fully understand the role that they
are playing.
There are three areas where we made some progress. One is
the Senior Executive Service where we went to pay-for-
performance. We also extended it to some of the technical folks
at the agencies. I would really like you to look at that
because in some areas it has been really successful. In other
areas, it has not been as good as it should be. I attribute
that to the fact that maybe they did not do the training that
they needed to do for folks.
The other area that we worked on was the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA). As I mentioned to you, I know
there is going to be an effort made to change the TSA system. I
would like you to publicly tell me whether or not you are
willing to objectively look at that system before you would
recommend any changes in it?
Mr. Berry. Absolutely, Senator. I can make you that promise
right here on the record, not only in that case, but in all of
the issues we have talked about today. I do not come into this
with any answer in my head right off the top. I need to
approach these gradually. I need to learn.
I need to meet with all of the relevant parties and
agencies, understand fully the complexities that are involved
in these issues, and see if we can find consensus and common
ground as to, again, what is the right way, what is the best
way, and work together not only with people within the
Executive Branch, but within the Legislative Branch, with you
and your staffs, in determining those issues.
Senator Voinovich. There will definitely be a move to take
TSA and put it under Title 5. We have had it from the
beginning. I have worked with former TSA Administrator Kip
Hawley on several enhancements to the system, and I would
really like you to look at that.
I also think it is important that you find out about the
employee satisfaction with the system. There are always people
that are unhappy with it. You say you are going to look at it
objectively; I think that is really important.
The other area is the more than 200,000 civilian employees
in the Defense Department that are part of a pay-for-
performance system. The information that I have received back
is that it has been quite successful, although I will say that
I am going to be visiting installations in Columbus and Dayton,
Ohio, to again touch base with the folks there to see how they
feel about it and so forth.
I just think that from my experience in government from a
lot of places, including as mayor and governor, this has really
made a difference in terms of our people and their job and
their job satisfaction.
I have talked with Senator Akaka. We have not introduced
the bill yet, but again, we are working on legislation to
improve performance evaluation in all of the Federal
departments, and it does not necessarily have to be done with
pay. One place you ought to look is the General Services
Administration (GSA). The man who ran that agency was Steve
Perry; he worked for me when I was governor. He was head of
administrative services.
Mr. Perry went over there, went to work, and really put a
good performance evaluation system in place. The interesting
thing is that if you look at some of the ratings in some
agencies that people get, it is like 98 percent. It is a
perfunctory kind of thing. What happens, I think, under that
kind of system is that if it is just perfunctory, then people
just figure, hey, it does not matter. You will get around and
you will see agencies where some of your best hitters are
people who would like to be recognized for the job that they
are doing.
One of the problems I think we have in government, and I
have talked to one person after another who have left the
Federal service, is they say, I go to work for an agency, I
work my butt off, and I do not get recognized for it, and
others just kind of come in and do their thing.
Do you understand what I am saying?
Mr. Berry. Absolutely.
Senator Voinovich. It is really not good.
I really would like to have you spend some time in that
area because I know you are going to be under pressure to
abolish the system. But to me, it is something that is
important for the future of our country.
One of the things Senator Akaka and I did was a little
simple thing like enhancing leave time for mid-career
professionals entering the government. Employees are interested
in knowing, if I come to work for an agency, is it going to be
that much different than the kind of environment that I
experienced in the private sector?
Mr. Berry. Senator, you have hit on many points there, and
if I could just comment on a couple. We have to expect the
best, and we have to figure out ways to deliver it. Appraisal
systems are one of the toughest things.
I think it goes to human nature, whether you are a parent
or in whatever capacity, no one wants to be the deliverer and
bearer of bad news. Parents are slow to discipline their kids
often because they are afraid, oh, how are they going to take
it? How is this going to impact them?
Managers are just the same, and consequently they put it
off. Often times we put people in management jobs or they are
promoted up over time. One day they come in, we say OK, you are
a manager, and we give them absolutely no training. And here is
this person who is thrown into this complex environment of
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) that is extremely
complicated, appraisal systems that they are not given any
training on whatsoever, no matter how important it is.
And they are expected to manage. And so consequently, they
fall back to what is traditional human nature, which is, try to
make everybody happy. In appraisal systems, you cannot make
everybody happy. My experience in the Federal Government is
99.5 percent of the employees are top notch, outstanding. But
just as in the private sector, there are problem employees, and
if somebody is not doing their job, if they are not performing
up to the standard, it is demoralizing to everybody to see
that, and it has to be dealt with.
They have to be addressed, and we have to do that through
fair appraisal systems so that if people are not doing the job
and they are not meeting those core responsibilities, they
should be removed, and we need to be clear about that. We need
to expect the best. We need to ensure the American people that
we are getting the best.
We have to figure out how to do that in a way that
recognizes that core human right, which is considered sort of
like a human flaw, if you will, that we are afraid to tell
people when they are doing the wrong thing or they are heading
in the wrong direction. We need to let our managers know, in
fact, you are helping that person.
There are people who I have had to do that with, where I
have had to say, look, you are on the wrong road and if you
cannot get on the right road, you had better be updating your
resume, it has gotten to be that serious, and I will work with
you on this, but you need to know, I am taking this seriously
now and I am watching.
Twice people have come back to me in later years and said,
thank you. Your doing that focused me. I did not realize I
should have been doing these things. It is a manager's
responsibility to bring those out, and in fact, people will
welcome it.
It will make us achieve that goal of expecting the best. It
is a tough one, and I do not know of anybody who has nailed it.
So it is one of the things I look forward to in doing this,
with the Defense Department, TSA, and other agencies. I do not
come into this with any predetermined belief or any commitment
to anybody on these issues. I will come into them with a fair
mind and look.
And if it is working and it is right, then we ought to ask,
can we translate that? Can we transfer that? Can we expand on
that? If we cannot, and if it is not working, then let us fix
it and let us figure out what will work.
But it is a tough one, and appraisals are tough. It has to
be done. We have to figure out a way to do this and do it
fairly so that it is not misused or abused; I am not defending
that. But people need to know that their performance standards
are set, they are agreed on with management, they are held
accountable to them, and they are regularly checked and
evaluated on that.
And that should be not just for employees in the Defense
Department and TSA. It needs to be for every employee in the
Federal Government. And we need to make that work and work well
because that is the only way we are going to be able to
guarantee to the public that they are getting the best.
Senator Voinovich. If you can do that in your shop, you
will be able to lead by example.
Mr. Berry. I will do my best, sir, if you give me the job.
Senator Voinovich. I thank you.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Senator Voinovich. Mr.
Berry, there are no further questions at this time. There may
be additional questions for the record, which we will submit to
you in writing.
The hearing record will remain open until the close of
business tomorrow for Members of this Committee to submit
additional statements or questions. I know you are anxious for
your nomination to move forward. It is my hope that the
Committee will vote on your nomination in the very near future
and that it will be considered expeditiously by the full
Senate.
So with that, thank you very much for your patience, and
for your family being here, and the extended family as well.
This hearing is adjourned.
Mr. Berry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[Whereupon, at 4:29 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR LIEBERMAN
I am pleased our Committee has the opportunity today to welcome M.
John Berry, nominated to be Director of the Office of Personnel
Management. Mr. Berry has spent most of his career managing people and
programs in the Federal Government, and he appears to be well qualified
to serve in the position to which he has been nominated.
Having come from a family dedicated to public service--with a
father and uncle who fought in World War II and a mother who worked for
the Census Bureau--Mr. Berry learned from an early age about the
dedication, intelligence, and commitment of those who make a career in
service.
Mr. Berry has a record of success on federal employee issues from
the policy, management, and employee perspectives. He started his
federal career as the Legislative Director for Rep. Steny Hoyer,
handling major legislative initiatives on the federal workforce. He
served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Law Enforcement for the
Department of Treasury. Then at the Department of the Interior, Mr.
Berry served as the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and
Budget. For the past four years, he has been Director of the
Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological Park. In these positions,
Mr. Berry received hands-on experience managing tens of thousands of
employees in a wide range of occupations and circumstances. He has
overseen major capital projects and launched several innovative
initiatives for training and overseeing the work of employees and
managers and to improve work life conditions at the workplace.
Throughout his career, Mr. Berry has worked successfully to improve
employee morale and workplace productivity. He helped design the
landmark legislation governing the structure of the pay system for
federal employees and created an agency university for employee and
manager training. And he has always worked to ensure an open line of
communication between management and employees.
As head of OPM, Mr. Berry would be responsible not only for the
4,800 employees under his direct supervision. He would set the human
capital agenda for the entire federal workforce at a critical time, as
we work to restore confidence in government, create the next generation
of leaders as senior employees retire, and hire and retain a talented
and dedicated workforce. Mr. Berry will also face looming human capital
challenges. Many in the federal workforce are aging and nearing
retirement. At the same time, many job-seekers complain about the
tedious process of finding and applying for federal jobs, as well as
the length of time it takes to get through the hiring process.
The Federal Government has long been a leader in areas such as
flextime, maternity and paternity leave and anti-discrimination rules.
Despite this, employees often do not take advantage of existing
policies, as a 2008 Government Accountability Report pointed out. I am
pleased that Mr. Berry has said he would address these issues to help
make the Federal Government an attractive option for job-seekers and to
keep it an attractive option for current employees.
Once again, I would like to offer my congratulations to Mr. Berry
on his nomination, commend him on his record at the highest levels of
government, and thank him for his agreement to take on these new
responsibilities and challenges at the Office of Personnel Management.
__________
PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR BARBARA A. MIKULSKI
I strongly recommend John Berry for the Director of the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM). John has been an extraordinary Federal
employee for nearly 20 years serving as a manager from day one.
I first met John when he was Legislative Director for now House
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Back in those days, John handled Federal
employee issues and was the lead staff on the Federal Employees Pay
Comparability Act. From the Maryland Congressional Delegation, John
moved to the Executive Branch serving in various management positions
at the Smithsonian Institute and the U.S. Departments of Treasury and
Interior.
As the Senator from Maryland, I represent 130,000 Federal
employees: from Nobel Prize winners at NIH to the Coast Guard who are
protecting Calvert Cliffs' nuclear plant. Federal employees are on the
front lines working hard every day. They guard our borders and protect
Americans at home: our Nation, our communities, and our way of life.
Whether it is a claims processor at Social Security making sure seniors
get the benefits they have earned, a weather forecaster at NOAA giving
farmers the information they need to feed America, or an administrative
assistant at the Department of Defense supporting our military, Federal
employees are dedicated and duty driven. And I know John will lead them
well.
There is no doubt that John has the resume for this job. But what
makes him the best candidate is John's positive and enthusiastic
attitude. This is something those of you that do not know John cannot
gleam from his resume.
John has my full support and confidence. He will bring new ideas,
energy and expertise to OPM. Thank you for your thoughtful
consideration of his nomination.
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