Analysis: Study Group Supports Ordering Agency Workers to Iraq

The Iraq Study Group

Federal agencies supporting the Iraq war and reconstruction should order their civilian employees to fill key jobs in the combat zone if not enough volunteers step forward, a high-level commission said in a report presented to the president and Congress yesterday.

The recommendation by the Iraq Study Group, chaired by James A. Baker III, a former secretary of state, and Lee H. Hamilton, a former House member, grew out of a sense that civilian agencies are not contributing enough personnel to Iraq, adding to the burdens on the U.S. military.

The group offered little detail on the staffing recommendation. In general, the State and Defense departments have been able to recruit volunteers to work in Iraq and Afghanistan, though violence has curtailed their movement. But the report clearly envisions a closer relationship between civilian and military personnel, with one recommendation calling on civilian agencies to train for and conduct joint operations with the military.

Although federal agencies can reassign employees based on where they are needed, it is rarely done. Unions discourage forced reassignments and, at many agencies, only senior federal executives are at any real risk of such transfers because they are seen as a mobile part of the government's workforce.

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