Results-Oriented Cultures: Office of Personnel Management Should Review Administrative Law Judge Program to Improve Hiring and Performance Management

摘要

The Administrative Procedure Act established unique conditions for administrative law judges' (ALJ) hiring and employment to protect their decisional independence. However, the potential for a wave of retirements and other events have focused attention on how ALJs are hired and managed. In response to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, this report examines, among other things, (1) the process for hiring ALJs and selected agencies' observations of the process; (2) ALJs' retirement eligibility and retirement issues; (3) and agency managers' reported ALJ performance management practices and stakeholders' views of these practices. To address these objectives GAO reviewed relevant statutes, regulations, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) retirement-related data, and other program-related documents, and interviewed officials from OPM, ALJ professional associations, and the two largest federal agencies employing ALJs--the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).