Personnel News: November 1996 Archives

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Office of the Administrator
Washington, DC 20546-0001
November 8, 1996

TO: C/Associate Administrator for Headquarters Operations
Directors, NASA Field Installations
FROM: AD/Acting Deputy Administrator
SUBJECT: Revised Buyout Plans

Several weeks ago, Sam Armstrong requested that each of you develop plans to take advantage of the buyout in FY l997. After reviewing the individual Center's recommendations, then overlaying the numerous programmatic challenges facing the Agency, the Administrator has accepted the recommendation to expand use of the buyout at this time. This tool affords NASA the opportunity to continue aggressively downsizing the workforce through voluntary means.

Over the last several years, the Agency has embarked on an ambitious plan to change how it conducts business in order to reduce costs, refocus efforts into research and technology development, and improve relevance to the Nation. By restructuring the size and composition of the civil service workforce, the Agency becomes better able to respond to this rapidly changing environment. By the end of FY 2000, the plan is for NASA to have fewer than 18,000 civil servants. This represents a 30-percent reduction from the authorized FY 1992 levels. Through FY l996, the reduction totaled over 4,500. In spite of the success thus far, the remaining 3,000 reductions represent a formidable objective, particularly since the Agency committed to its employees and the Congress to exhaust whatever voluntary measures are available prior to using involuntary measures.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Office of the Administrator
Washington, DC 20546-0001
November 8, 1996
TO:C/Associate Administrator for Headquarters Operations Directors, NASA Field Installations
FROM:AD/Acting Deputy Administrator
SUBJECT:Revised Buyout Plans

Several weeks ago, Sam Armstrong requested that each of you develop plans to take advantage of the buyout in FY l997. After reviewing the individual Center's recommendations, then overlaying the numerous programmatic challenges facing the Agency, the Administrator has accepted the recommendation to expand use of the buyout at this time. This tool affords NASA the opportunity to continue aggressively downsizing the workforce through voluntary means.

Over the last several years, the Agency has embarked on an ambitious plan to change how it conducts business in order to reduce costs, refocus efforts into research and technology development, and improve relevance to the Nation. By restructuring the size and composition of the civil service workforce, the Agency becomes better able to respond to this rapidly changing environment. By the end of FY 2000, the plan is for NASA to have fewer than 18,000 civil servants. This represents a 30-percent reduction from the authorized FY 1992 levels. Through FY l996, the reduction totaled over 4,500. In spite of the success thus far, the remaining 3,000 reductions represent a formidable objective, particularly since the Agency committed to its employees and the Congress to exhaust whatever voluntary measures are available prior to using involuntary measures.