With the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Recovery Act), the Administration is moving aggressively to invigorate the Nation’s economy.  Federal, state, and local government agencies and private organizations will play major roles in getting Americans back to work.  Federal human capital professionals must be ready to help ensure that their agencies are able to meet the challenges caused by unprecedented demands on agency resources. 

To support Federal agencies, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will host an interagency forum to strategize with agencies about potential approaches to meeting the human capital management support needed to implement the Recovery Act, to provide information about authorities that are already available to them with respect to certain categories of positions, and to provide guidance about what OPM will expect to see with respect to requests for permission to use authorities administered by OPM.  The forum is open to the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCOs), Deputy CHCOs, other human resources leadership and key program officials whose agencies are directly responsible for the implementation of the Recovery Act.  This event will be held on Tuesday, March 3, 2009, from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. at the Theodore Roosevelt Building’s Campbell Auditorium.

At the forum, OPM’s leadership team will brief you on the technical assistance OPM can provide to help agencies meet their particular human capital challenges under the Act.  OPM will work with agencies individually to design and implement human capital solutions that meet your mission requirements, while also applying Government-wide tools, flexibilities, and broad-based solutions, to the extent they are appropriate. 

Please RSVP by Wednesday, February 25, 2009 to Sydney Smith-Heimbrock at sydney.smith-heimbrock@opm.gov, 202-606-2762.  Please provide the names and titles of all participants your agency plans to send to this event.

I look forward to seeing you at this important discussion.