May 17 2007
From The Space Library
The House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to examine NASA workforce issues and recommendations made in recently released reports of two independent review panels—the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), and the NRC. The subcommittee noted a sizeable shift in NASA’s programmatic activities, to implement the Vision for Space Exploration; retire the Shuttle by 2010; complete the ISS; develop the Orion CEV and the Ares CLV; and deal with the growing retirement-eligible workforce, all within the framework of a limited budget. NASA Assistant Administrator for Human Capital Management Toni Dawsey testified that NASA’s Workforce Strategy, submitted to Congress in April 2006, articulated three underlying principles: “building and sustaining ten healthy Centers; maximizing the use of NASA’s current human capital capabilities; and evolving to a more flexible, scalable workforce.” John G. Stewart, a member of NAPA’s Panel on NASA Multi- Sector Workforce, summarized the panel’s major recommendations, including NASA’s adoption of “a longer range, risk-based planning strategy to anticipate and respond effectively to future program needs, budget shortfalls, and schedule revisions for [its] total multi-sector workforce.” David C. Black, co-chair of NRC’s Committee on Issues Affecting the Future of the U.S. Space Science and Engineering Workforce, testified that the committee had concluded that NASA did not currently have the in-house expertise, particularly in the areas of systems engineering and project management, to implement the Vision for Space Exploration. Black recommended that NASA adopt policies enabling it to obtain the highest quality personnel over the long term. Toni Dawsey acknowledged that NAPA’s and NRC’s reports confirmed NASA’s “assessments of the challenges facing us in the workforce arena and validate the actions that we have initiated to address the most critical and encompassing issues.”
National Research Council, Committee on Meeting the Workforce Needs for the National Vision for Space Exploration, Building a Better NASA Workforce: Meeting the Workforce Needs for the National Vision for Space Exploration (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2007); National Academy of Public Administration, NASA: Balancing a Multisector Workforce To Achieve a Healthy Organization (report, Washington, DC, February 2007), 95-101, in U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, Building and Maintaining a Healthy and Strong NASA Workforce, 110th Cong., 1st sess., 17 May 2007; U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, “Subcommittee Focuses on Ensuring the Health and Vitality of NASA’s Current and Future Workforce,” news release, 17 May 2007, http://science.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1833 (accessed 9 August 2010).
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