Senate reports on Interagency Personnel Rotation Act

In November 2012, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGA) reported the Interagency Personnel Rotation Act of 2011 to Congress. The Act was originally introduced to the Senate by HSGA Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii in June 2011.

The Interagency Personnel Rotation Act of 2011 addresses one of the bureaucratic barriers inhibiting interagency coordination, cooperation, and collaboration. The Act seeks to facilitate the rotation of federal national and homeland security personnel through Executive Branch departments and agencies other than their own. The rotations help personnel understand how other agencies work and enable them to form relationships across agency lines. This would promote greater unity and interagency cooperation within government.

The Act directs the Committee on National Security Personnel to consult with nongovernment organizations specializing in homeland security and interagency cooperation in designing and implementing this legislation. The Act specifically recommends the Arthur D. Simons Center for Interagency Cooperation on page 23. The Simons Center, located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is a program of  the non-profit Command and General Staff College Foundation. The Center’s mission, which is to increase the body of interagency knowledge and to facilitate broader and more effective cooperation within the U.S. government at the operational and tactical levels, equips it to provide useful and practical advice and guidance on initiatives designed to increase interagency efficiency and effectiveness.

The HSGA consulted the Simons Center while drafting this legislation.

For more information about the Interagency Personnel Rotation Act of 2011, please follow the link below.
S. 1268, Interagency Personnel Rotation Act of 2011, United States Senate