MR. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 12, 2004
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: January 1, 1960
• Content Type: STATEMENT

Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
STATEMENT OF MR. JOHN A. WATTS
DIRECTOR OF CIVILIAN PERSONNEL
DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE
BEFORE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE
COMMITTEE ON POST OFFICE AND CIVIL SERVICE
UNITED STATES SENATE
WASHINGTON, D. C. - 1960
H. R. 10695, AN ACT, "TO PROVIDE FOR
THE ROTATION IN OVERSEAS ASSIGNMENTS OF
CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES 'UNDER THE DEFENSE
ESTABLISHMENT HAVING CAREER-CONDITIONAL
AND CAREER APPOINTMENTS IN THE
COMPETITIVE CIVIL SERVICE, AND FOR
OTHER PURPOSES".
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
I am John A. Watts, Director of Civilian Personnel, Department of the
Air Force. On behalf of the Department of Defense, I want to thank the
Committee for this opportunity to present the Department's views on H. R.
10695. 1 am accompanied today by other representatives of the Department
of Defense.
Historically, the Department of Defense has encouraged the inter-
change of competent civilian employees between overseas and stateside
activities. Experience in the military departments has demonstrated
the need for filling key civilian positions overseas, especially high-
level supervisory positions, with personnel familiar with stateside
operations. In addition, the overseas responsibilities of the military
departments make it highly desirable that many key civilian positions
within the United States be staffed with personnel who have had overseas
experience. Both objectives can be satisfied by first inducing personnel
Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
 Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
experienced in the operation of the military department concerned to
accept overseas assignment and then by insuring that they are properly
placed in a stateside position in that department upon completion of
the oversee tour.
In attempting to accomplish these objectives, however, the military
departments have concluded that large numbers of our best qualified
employees and those most needed overseas cannot be motivated to accept
such assignments without a minimum statutory guarantee of return to
a position comparable to and in the same geographic area as the position
which they last held in the United States. Quite naturally, well-qualified
career employees want assurance of continuation of their career
opportunities.
ACTIQ3 TAKEN WITHIN CURRENT AGENCY AUTHORITY
Regulatory Retests - The Departments of Army, Navy and Air
Force have attempted to solve this problem administratively. Each
has a regulation designed to return the employee accepting an overseas
assignment to.the last position held in the United States or to the best
possible assignment that can be made under Civil Service laws and
regulations. For example., under Air Force regulations, unless an
appropriate vacancy is available when the employee returns, he is
considered as returned to his previous position (even though it is
occupied), and reduction-in-force procedures are applied. However,
unless his retention standing is higher than that of other employees
with whom he must compete, he cannot be reassigned to a position at
the grade level which he left or even at an acceptable lower grade.
Thus, the employee may either suffer a severe financial loss or have
Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
 Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
no job at all. In addition, there is always the possibility that
actions based on administrative regulations not specifically supported
by statute may be reversed in the event of appeal to the courts.
Placement Assistance. The "return rights" regulations have been
st pp],emented by various plans for placement assistance designed to
place retuxzdng employees in vacant positions at military installations
in the United States. Although these plans have been an integral part
of our placement programs and have received continued attention and
top-level support, the results have not been adequate to meet the need.
This is particularly true when cutbacks are taking place in the United
States and vacant positions are often cancelled as a means of reaching
reduced employment levels.
NEED FOR ILATIO.N
In spite of the attention given to this problem and the solutions
attempted within administrative authorities, it has become increasingly
difficult to operate an interchange program between stateside and over..
seas installations. If rotation plans are to be effective, legislative
authority is needed to guarantee placement upon completion of an over-
seas tour for the following reasons:
1. The "return rights" that can be provided under agency
regulations do not assure placement.
2. Studies have established that lack of a return placement
guarantee is the main reason many of our best qualified employees decline
offers of reassignment overseas.
Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : C!~-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
 Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
3. As precedent, the Congress has already provided statutory
reemployment rights for certain employees who accept overseas assignment
outside the Department of Defense.
I should like to comment briefly on each of these points.
First. The return rights provided under agency regulations fall
far short of a true guarantee of placement upon completion of the
overseas tour. Since it is impossible to predict how an employee's
retention standing will compare with the other employees with whom
he must compete in reduction in force at the time of his return from
overseas, it is impossible to assure him before he leaves that he will
have a job at his former employing installation when he completes his
overseas tour. This is grossly unfair to the status employee who
voluntarily accepts an oversew assignment as a part of his Federal
career.
Although the problem has been the subject of extended studies,
an adequate solution has not been found within current statutory
authorities. Prior to developing a legislative proposal, numerous
discussions were held with the Civil Service Commission concerning
the problem and its possible solution. The practices of other agencies
having overseas activities were reviewed and various alternative plans
considered. At the conclusion of this study, representatives of DOD
and the Commission agreed that all of the possible plans considered
failed to meet the needs of the Department of Defense. It was the
consensus that within the framework of existing statutory authority
the military departments cannot develop interchange programs which
Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : Cl -RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
 Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
are administratively feasible and at the same time provide employees
with adequate assurance of continuous employment.
Second. Under current operations our best qualified employees are
frequently unwilling to go overseas and the lack of a return placement
guarantee is the main reason for their declinations. This was demonstrated
within the Air Force when our largest bureau, the Air Materiel Command,
was confronted with a major staffing problem abroad. To meet this
problem, it devised and put into operation a formalized plan for rotating
key civilians between its overseas and stateside installations. Briefly,.
the plan provided that critical positions overseas at the GS-11 level
and above be designated "overseas rotation positions." To provide a
recruitment base for these-positions, corresponding positions within
the United States, at the same or lower level and requiring experience
similar to that required in the overseas'positions were designated
"support positions." Those incumbents of the support positions who
bad,. demonstrated their competence and suitability for overseas assign-
ment were then circularized to ascertain the number who would volunteer
for service overseas for two years with a possible two-year extension.
In spite of the top-side support given to promoting the rotation plan
and the excellent job that was done in explaining its provisions to
employees, on an overall basis, less than one out of each ten employees
occupying the designated positions were willing to accept overseas
assignment. whereas for some localities and for some positions no
one in this group indicated availability.
Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CILRDP91-00965R000400100007-9
 Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
A survey was txlen conducted among those who bad declined to
participate in the Rotation Plano Fpl.oyees were asked to indicate
the "most important reason for declining to sign the rotation agreement."
Of the responses obtained from over 2,000 employees, 39% gave lack of
guaranteed reemployment as their reason for declining. This group
is more than twice as large as that indicating any other reason.
.The other categories were relatively small and for the most part the
reasons were personal to the employee rather than related to conditions
of employment.
The findings based on an Air Force-wide study were similar. An
attitude survey of management personnel was conducted at all Air Force
installations in the Uhited States. It was designed to obtain objective
information on which to base administrative action to assure maximum
recruitment, utilisation, and retention of personnel and to obtain
back-up data as a partial basis for support of necessary legislative
proposals. A 50% sample of all employees in grades GS-12 and above
engaged in other than scientific work was selected at random. Three
items of the questionnaire related specifically to overseas recruitment.
The responses obtained from 3,219 administrators are of particular
interest. When asked whether, if given reemployment rights to their
present job, they would accept a job with the Air Force overseas at
their present grade, 36% replied in the affirmative; 66% indicated
that if granted such reemployment rights, they would accept overseas
employment at a higher grade. Of the group willing to go at their
present grade, one out of three gave lack of reemployment rights as
6
Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
 Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
the main reason why they at'_ . previously accepted or sought over-
seas employment. These studies have indicated to the Air Force that
enactment by the Congress of a statutory guarantee of return place-
ment would make overseas tours attractive and feasible to a higher
percentage of our best qualified employees.
Third. Under precedent legislation the Congress has already
provided Statutory Re employment Rights for certain Federal employees
assigned overseas outside the Department of Defense. For example,
employees transferring from a. Federal agency to Foreign Service
Reserve positions have statutory reinstatement rights to the agency
from which they transferred when their overseas assignments terminate.
Under this same statutory authority, Federal employees who accept
certain positions in foreign areas with the International Cooperation
Administration are given reinstatement rights to their former employing
agency. P. L. 85-795, recently enacted, grants reemployment rights to
Federal employees who transfer to certain international organizations.
Under these statutory authorities an employee of a stateside military
installation has a stronger guarantee of placement on completion of
an oversea assignment in another agency than the employee who is
assigned to an overseas position in his on military department.
ENACTMF,NT OF H. R. 10695 RECOMMENDED
Such enactment would authorize the Secretary of Defense and the
Secretaries of the military departments to grant return. rights to
employees who accept assignment outside the United States at manage-
ment's request. This right is restricted by the bill to employees who
7
Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
 Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
hold career and career-conditional appointments in the competitive
service. It would guarantee these employees upon satisfactory completioO
of duty outside the United States the right to be returned, to their
former positions or, if such positions no longer'exist, to one of at
least the same grade in the same geographical area. This represents
a minimum right, but does not in any way preclude their being placed
in a position of a higher grade under the agency's normal placement
or promotion programs. As a matter of fact, consistent with the
basic objectives of the agencies' interchange and career development
programs, every effort will. be made to place a returning employee in
a vacant position at an appropriate grade level which would make
maximum use of the experience which he has acquired since leaving his
stateside positions
It is anticipated in carrying out the provisions of the act
that the position held by the employee immediately before assignment
outside the U.S. would be earmarked. Any employee who occupies such
a position during the former incumbent's absence overseas would be
informed of the right of that employee to be returned to it. When
the interim incumbent is displaced by the employee returning from
overseas, he will if possible be reassigned to a vacant position at
his current grade and salary. If an appropriate vacancy does not
exist, he will be reassigned under reduction-in-force procedures. If
it is necessary to take reduction-in-force action, the returning employee
who is exercising his right to return to his former position will not
compete in that reduction in force.
8
Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
 Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9
In summary, I believe the proposed a?e:t would materr aid the
Department of Defense in interchanging its best qualified snd. experienced
employees between stateside and overseas installations. I further
believe that it provides an effective and equitable means of aseurizlg
the return placement in a stateside position of career employees of
the Department of Defense who are willing to accept oversee assignments
when they are needed for duty outside the United States, I believe`
this is particularly important in view of the fact that as a matter
of Defense Department policy acceptance by the employee of overseas
assignments has been, and it is intended will continue to be, on a
voluntary basis.
Analysis of the total effect of the legislation does not indicate
that it would result in any increase in overall expenditures, On the
contrary, I believe it would result in significant savings through the
retention of competent personnel with & ,consequent reduction in current
costs of recruiting and trstining new employees.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this Committee and
will attempt to answer any questions you may have.
Approved For Release 2004/05/13 : c A-RDP91-00965R000400100007-9