I'm not sure how many governent agencies have a variation on this problem-- I know other parts of USGS than the Water Resources area have their salary covered by direct appropriation in the budget, but we get mostly "coop funds" that require another agency to put up part of the money, and then funds that are aimed at 100% Federal projects. When the project goes away, the (generally permanent, Civil Service) employee has no salary, and thus the scramble for new projects to avoid having to RIF.
This "is your salary covered" difference makes it hard for us to work with other parts of USGS on interdisciplinary projects, a big push. They only need money for the travel, lab work, etc., while we have to cover all that and salary, too.
But in the Good Old Days, or at least the Slightly Better Old Days, project funding flowed steadily enough that we rarely ended up in this situation. Ater years of "reduce the size of government" and a de-emphasis on environmental programs, things are really tight.
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Date: 2005-10-07 01:27 pm (UTC)This "is your salary covered" difference makes it hard for us to work with other parts of USGS on interdisciplinary projects, a big push. They only need money for the travel, lab work, etc., while we have to cover all that and salary, too.
But in the Good Old Days, or at least the Slightly Better Old Days, project funding flowed steadily enough that we rarely ended up in this situation. Ater years of "reduce the size of government" and a de-emphasis on environmental programs, things are really tight.