Elijah Cummings: “Mr. Chairman, I want to just quote from an internal memo from OPM with regard to this legislation because I think it is…”

“Mr. Chairman, I want to just quote from an internal memo from OPM with regard to this legislation because I think it is very important that the very institution, the Office of Personnel Management, whose job it is to oversee this process, we need to know what they say about all this because I think that is very, very important, and that is what basically this debate is all about. OPM, and I quote, OPM was given authority to oversee personnel management demonstration projects by the Civil Service Reform Act. OPM's years of experience and expertise in the development, evaluation and oversight of such projects would not be used sufficiently if OPM were limited to a consulting role at the discretion of the institution's presidents. It would be inappropriate to establish a demonstration project, and these are the people who have expertise in this. These are the folks, it is their job to do this. This is what they are saying. It would be inappropriate to establish a demonstration project which could be made permanent as provided in Section 8 of the bill without the accountability provided by independent oversight, evaluation and scrutiny under the normal section 4703 procedures.”