Volcker Commission To Address Service Reform

Judicial Compensation Will Be On Agenda

The second National Commission on the Public Service, also known as the Volcker Commission, has added judicial and employee compensation to the issues it is considering in the current federal service reform debate. The Commission is looking at the need for comprehensive reform in the federal public service and will make recommendations on closing the pay gap and lifting the pay ceiling, among other areas of concern, by the end of the year.

"Originally, the Commission was slated to study and report only on executive branch salaries," said Administrative Office Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham. "We are understandably pleased that the Commission now will consider the judges' plight." Federal judges have received only four cost-of- living increases in the last nine years, and have seen the value of their pay decrease by more than 13 percent since January 1993. Per-haps as a consequence, judges are leaving the bench at an unusual rate. Only five federal judges left the bench in the 1960s. However, more than 60 Article III judges retired or resigned from the bench between 1991 and 2002, the largest number of departures over such a period in the history of the Judiciary. In the first month of 2002 alone, two federal judges left the bench before retirement age, forfeiting any right to an an- nuity.

Closing the pay gap is among the areas of concern the Commission will address. Recent research suggests a growing pay gap exists between private sector and public jobs for the highest_ranking government employees, in part because of the escalating salaries of private executives but also due to growing pay compression at the top of the federal salary structure, including judicial branch employees.

The 11-member Commission is chaired by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Paul Volcker. Commissioners, drawn from both political parties, are former Senator Bill Bradley; former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin; former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala; former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci; former Comptroller General Charles Bowsher; former head of the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority Richard Ravitch; former White House Chief of Staff Kenneth M. Duberstein; former Congressman Vin Weber; former Office of Personnel Management Director Connie Horner; and former Office of Management and Budget Director Franklin D. Raines.

The Commission met in March 2002, and plans two additional meetings, one on July 15, which will be a series of hearings to receive input, and the last in late 2002 at which recommendations for action and an action plan will be presented. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer will testify before the Commission in July. The final report will be promoted for congressional action in the 108^th Congress.

The Commission was convened and will be administered by the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Service, and comes nearly 12 years after the first Volcker Commission was formed. In a 1989 report, the first Commission supported improved judicial compensation. The report may be a starting point for the present Commission, which has said it will draw upon existing analyses.

Bill of Rights Sculpture Moves to New Home

Last month the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri rededicated a unique monument to the Bill of Rights. Originally sited in front of the old courthouse in Kansas City, the 14-foot bronze sculpture with a copy of the Bill of Rights at its base was moved to its new home in a park in front of the Charles Evans Whittaker Courthouse.

Over 200 Bill of Rights plaques were installed at federal courthouses and other facilities across the country in celebration of the Constitution's Bicentennial in 1991.

Judge Damon J. Keith, who was chairman of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Bicentennial of the Constitution, said, "The plaques serve to remind citizens throughout the country that we are a country of laws and not of people, and that we live by the rule of law. The prominence of the plaques encourages citizens to cherish the Constitution and the Bill of Rights." Some courthouses created Bill of Rights plazas and in other ways showcased the plaques. At the time, Keith called the Kansas City location "the most spectacular site of a Bill of Rights plaque."

The sculpture, created by Kansas University artist Kwan Wu, depicts 50 pairs of hands, each pair representing a state. The monument originally was dedicated on September 26, 1991, with support from The Missouri Institute for Justice, Inc., and local attorneys. Photo credit: Michele Nelson