Lawmakers to team up on hiring legislation - unions wary

[The Straight Story]

Lawmakers to team up on hiring legislation
By Alyson Klein, CongressDaily


The House Government Reform Committee is taking aim at the federal government's hiring practices with new legislation. Union officials, however, are watching to ensure that proposed changes do not contribute to a system also notorious for hiring the well connected.
Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and Federal Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Jon Porter, R-Nev., are teaming up to write legislation.

"The inefficiencies and ineffectiveness in the federal hiring process are long-documented. These problems lead to substantial hiring delays, forcing many qualified candidates to look elsewhere for employment and discouraging many others from even applying for the civil service," Davis' spokesman said.

An official from the American Federation of Government Employees said that while the union is not opposed to change, it is concerned that a shakeup of the process could include provisions making it more difficult for federal employees to take on new positions.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/041505cdpm1.htm