WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley is asking questions about how much is being spent by the federal government to train high-level employees in the executive branch.
Grassley sent letters of inquiry to the directors of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, OPM’s Executive Institute, the Center for Creative Leadership, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government after learning that the total amount of money spent for executive training is not available.
“Training is important, but it needs to be managed in a responsible way,” Grassley said. “The limited information that is available about current training programs indicates that in some cases, programs are 460 percent higher in cost than the total tuition, fees, and room and board of the average four-year private university, and exceed the average four-year public university by over 1,000 percent.”
Grassley said that by way of his initial inquiry of OPM, he learned that OPM does not collect complete, reliable information on how many federal employees participate in these training activities, or how much this training costs the American taxpayer annually. In addition, OPM does not compare this training to other types of training that may be available on the open market at a cheaper price.
“As a matter of good government, it ought to be determined how much the executive branch is spending in total for training for its Senior Executive Service,” Grassley said. “And, federal officials are obligated to determine if there are more effective, efficient, and economical ways to train those serving in this category of federal worker.”
Members of the Senior Executive Service serve in key positions just below the top presidential appointees and are often viewed as the link between those appointees and the rest of the federal workforce.
Click here to read Grassley’s letter to the director of OPM.
Click here to read Grassley’s letter to the director of OPM’s Federal Executive Institute.
Click here to read Grassley’s letter to the president of the Center for Creative Leadership.
Click here to read Grassley’s letter to the dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government.