May 7, 2019
Proposed Civilian Personnel System Supporting “Space Force”
Background
The Department of Defense (DOD) proposed legislation to
Congress that would establish a sixth armed service—
United States Space Force—inside the Department of the
Air Force (Air Force). The proposal’s various provisions
include the establishment of a space civilian personnel
system (SCPS) in the excepted service.
Authority for SCPS would reside in the Air Force
provisions of Title 10 of the U.S. Code (Title 10), not in the
DOD Personnel provisions of Title 10 or Employees
provisions of Title 5 of the U.S. Code (Title 5). The SCPS
legislation “. . . would amend [Title 10] . . . to provide
greater flexibility . . . on personnel matters . . . for the
civilian employees . . . assigned to, or who support, the U.S.
Space Force or U.S. Space Command, similar to . . . the
Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System.”
DOD Civilian Personnel Systems
The three bespoke DOD civilian personnel systems below
are similar in purpose to SCPS. DOD components and
military departments have authority to implement and
manage them pursuant to DOD policy.
Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System (DCIPS)
– exists in parallel to the general personnel system in
DOD and the military departments.
Cyber Excepted Service (CES) – provides a skills-based
supplemental system in U.S. Cyber Command.
Defense Acquisition Workforce (AWF) – augments the
general personnel system in DOD and military
department acquisition activities.
SCPS ostensibly would be a DOD-wide civilian personnel
system established and managed by the Secretary of
Defense. In fact, it would be a military department-only
civilian personnel system because SCPS positions would
only exist in the Air Force. If enacted, SCPS would be the
only bespoke civilian personnel system established by DOD
within a military department and under the control of a
service secretary.
SCPS
SCPS appears to be a modified version of DCIPS. An
Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) civilian personnel
official stated that the Air Force used DCIPS as a model
because it is a proven system. SCPS is distinguishable from
DCIPS in at least three areas: interchange authority,
compensation, and labor-management relations.
Interchange Authority
SCPS would allow the Secretary of Defense to reappoint
SCPS employees within DOD from the excepted service to
the competitive service if certain conditions are satisfied.
Generally, unless a positon is “excepted” by law all civil
service positons in the executive branch are “competitive.”
DCIPS does not have a comparable provision allowing
interchange.
Compensation
SCPS compensation provisions significantly differ from
DCIPS and could have a highest pay among equals effect in
comparison to similarly situated DOD employees.
SCPS maximum rate of basic pay would increase to
Executive Schedule Level II; DCIPS must use Level V.
SCPS aggregate limitation on pay for salary and all
other payments for nonexecutive employees would
increase to the equivalent of the Vice President’s salary;
DCIPS must use Executive Schedule Level I.
SCPS pay rates would be set using established DOD or
labor market rates as needed to recruit and retain
personnel; DCIPS must use established DOD rates.
SCPS qualifying criteria for additional overseas
allowances appear less onerous than those in DCIPS.
To illustrate the significance of the maximum rate of basic
pay increase, without accounting for locality rate increases,
consider that the 2019 Executive Schedule Level V rate
applicable to DCIPS is $156,000, whereas the Level II rate
applicable to SCPS is $192,300. The SCPS maximum rate
would be twenty-three percent greater than DCIPS. As for
the aggregate limitation on pay, consider that the 2019
Executive Schedule Level I rate applicable to DCIPS is
$213,600, whereas the Vice President’s salary rate,
applicable to SCPS, is $230,700. The SCPS aggregate
limitation would be eight percent greater than DCIPS.
Labor-Management Relations
If SPCS becomes law, the Secretary of Defense could
implement SCPS without regard to any provision of federal
labor-management relations law found in chapter 71 of
Title 5. Under existing law, the President may deny
collective bargaining rights for the employees of a federal
agency or subdivision if he determines that the agency or
subdivision has a primary function of intelligence or
national security work, and such rights would be
inconsistent with national security requirements and
considerations. Given the work to be performed by the
Space Force (SF), the President may decide that its
employees should not have collective bargaining rights.
Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan informed
Congress that DOD’s approach to the role of labor
organizations in SCPS is based on integration with the
National Reconnaissance Office—an intelligence agency. If
large numbers of current space support employees with
