Competitive Service Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. WITTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding and thank him for his leadership.

As you have heard, this is just a commonsense bill, and I rise in strong support of S. 1580, the Competitive Services Act. I want to thank my colleague from Virginia, Gerry Connolly, for his effort, along with my staff, in putting together the House version of this bill.

It is just a commonsense, bicameral, and bipartisan bill that allows agencies in a very complex and competitive world to aggressively and timely recruit individuals for these positions. We want to get individuals into those positions quickly, and we want to understand where the talent lies so that these agencies can communicate back and forth. Many times that silo approach doesn't work. This breaks down those silos and allows agencies to share information about these applicants.

In today's world when we need to, in a timely way, gets folks into the cybersecurity realm, we need to get folks into the information technology realm, and even in the veterans' healthcare realm where we need to get healthcare providers there quickly, especially when there is demand, this is the perfect way to do that. When we go through the effort of having these individuals apply for these jobs, we know what their qualifications are. There is no reason why we shouldn't be sharing this information. It allows us to act in the best interests of taxpayers, it cuts down on the amount of expense that is put forth in recruiting these individuals, and it ensures that we get things done on time.

We understand, too, the talent pool that is out there. Many times, too, if you look at it and say that these are the individuals who are available and even if there is a challenge in getting somebody, you can immediately see that, instead of having to wait for time to communicate back and forth between agencies and say, ``Well, it doesn't look like in this area that we have the number of individuals that we need; what is the next course of action?'' this allows us to get through all of those particular issues and get people in these positions as quickly as possible.

It is just a commonsense piece of legislation that allows our managers to manage in the most effective way possible. It allows us to do the best job for our country, and it allows the best use of taxpayers' dollars.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support S. 1580.

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