A6


From Page One interns from A1


Employees, the largest federal labor union. He also said it had created “a feeling of hostility in the workforce to the intern pro- gram.” Because it had been used to


skirt regular hiring procedures, he said Saturday, federalworkers will be pleased to see it end and be replaced by a programtarget- ed specifically to young people and graduating students. The FCIPwas created by Presi-


dent Bill Clinton in 2000 with the stated goal of attracting “ex- ceptionalmen and women to the Federal workforce” and prepar- ing them “for careers in analyz- ing and implementing public programs.” About 400 people were hired


under the streamlined rules of the program in 2001, but that number quickly grew — to 6,600 in 2004 andmore than 26,700 in 2009. Agencies were able to hire much faster than usual under the program because they did not have to advertise open positions. The Office of Personnel and


Management,which oversees the program, had no comment on the president’s plans. Although federal worker


unions have criticized and chal- lenged the program, managers have often liked it for the hiring flexibility and speed it allows. The Partnership for Public


Service, a nonprofit group that studies the federal workforce, also has been supportive of the FCIP. “We believe the growth is


related to a very simple reason overall: It works well as a hiring authority for those agencies that use it,” John Palguta, a Partner- ship vice president, said at a public OPM meeting in June. (The Partnership and The Post have a content-sharing relation- ship.) Even supporters, however, ac-


knowledge that its name is mis- leading. Rather than serving as a limited program for students, it has been used broadly by some agencies to fill vacancies. “Since 2003, U.S. Customs and


Border Protection has used FCIP as its exclusivemethod for hiring all incoming customs and border protection officers,” Maureen Gilman, legislative director of the National Treasury Employ- ees Union, told Congress inMay. Colleen M. Kelley, that union’s president, said in a statement Saturday that “The current pro- gram circumvents merit princi- ples and veteran’s preference.” A concerted effort by federal


employee unions to revamp or terminate the program got a boost in November with the Merit Systems Protection Board’s ruling that it violates the preference veterans are granted in federal hiring. “Untold numbers of veterans


are potentially being shut out of job opportunities for which they would have preference, because the agencies are filling the posi- tions under FCIP without public notice,” the board ruled. Dropping the program could


help smooth the relationship between organized labor and the White House. Those relations sunk when Obama proposed a two-year federal pay freeze, to take effect in January. That led to the harshest criticism ever di- rected to Obama fromthe gener- ally supportive unions. Obama’s executive order is


part of the administration’s broader effort to fix what many describe as a dysfunctional hir- ing process. The draft executive order, for


instance, states that “The com- plexity of the rules governing admission to the career civil service creates a barrier to re- cruiting and hiring students and recent graduates. . . . It places the Federal Government at a com- petitive disadvantage compared to private-sector employers when it comes to hiring qualified applicants for entry-level posi- tions.” When Obama issued a presi-


dential memorandum in May calling for major changes in hiring procedures, he ordered the OPM to evaluate the intern program and provide recom- mendations concerning the pro- gram’s future. The decision to end it followed fromthat evalua- tion and the federal worker pro- tection board’s ruling. In one of the cases before the


board, Larry Evans said the Vet- erans Affairs Department violat- ed his veterans’ preference when it used the intern program to fill all nine openings for service representatives in its Columbia, S.C., facility. In support of Evans, the NTEU and the AFGE said the positions should have been sub- ject to regular competitive hiring practices. The board agreed that Evans was entitled to be recon- sidered for one of the jobs. In a case involving theDepart-


ment of Agriculture, David Dean of South Carolina, who has a 30


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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2010 Federal program accused of hiring ‘abuses’ to be shut down


percent service-connected dis- ability, argued that his right to compete for federal jobs was violated because the intern pro- gram is not required to publicly post vacancies. The board con- cluded thatDean did not have an opportunity to fully compete for the job and to have his veterans’ preference rights taken into ac- count. Although the internship pro- gram that hired thousands of


“We believe the growth is related to a very simple reason overall: It works well as a hiring authority.” —John Palguta, the Partnership for Public Service


workers is slated to end,men and women hired through it and then retained will not lose their jobs. The draft order says that those workers “shall be converted to


the competitive service . . . with no loss of pay or benefits.” The order also establishes a


new Internship Program and and a new Recent Graduates


Program. They will join the Pres- idential Management Fellows Program as part of a new effort called the Pathways Program. The draft order instructs agen-


cies to provide “meaningful de- velopment work” for interns, who can be graduates of institu- tions including high schools, community colleges, trade and technical schools, and universi- ties. The current PresidentialMan-


agement Fellows Programwould be slightly changed under the order. No longer would appli- cants be nominated by their graduate schools. OPM would establish eligibility require- ments and qualifications. The central thrust of the program, to develop a “cadre of potential government leaders,” according to OPM literature, would re- main.


federaldiary@washpost.com


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