Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness

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Under Secretary of Defense
for Personnel and Readiness
At the pleasure of the President
Formation16 March 1994 (1994-03-16)
First holderEdwin Dorn
Salary$165,300
WebsiteOfficial website

The under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, or USD (P&R) is a high-ranking civilian position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) within the United States Department of Defense responsible for advising the secretary and deputy secretary of defense on recruitment, career development, pay and benefits, and oversight of the state of military readiness. The under secretary is appointed from civilian life by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve at the pleasure of the President.

Ashish Vazirani is the current acting under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, serving since 8 September 2023. Additionally, he exercises day-to-day supervision of the Department of Defense Education Activity and the Defense Commissary Agency.[1]

The previous most recent under secretary was Gil Cisneros, who served from 24 August 2021 to 8 September 2023.

Overview

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (OUSD(P&R)) is the principal staff element for the Department of Defense for all human resources,

National Guard and Reserve affairs, personnel requirements for weapons support, and military and civilian family matters, subject to the authority of the Secretary of Defense.[2] Through the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy, the United States Military Entrance Processing Command also reports to the Under Secretary.[3]

With the rank of Under Secretary, the USD(P&R) is a Level III position within the Executive Schedule. Since January 2010, the annual rate of pay for Level III is $165,300.

History

The position was first mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 (P.L. 103-160), signed by President

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.[5] Since the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 was signed on 5 October 1999, the Under Secretary has been responsible for establishing standards on deployment of units away from assigned duty stations, the length of time they may be away for a deployment away from assigned duty stations, and for establishing systems for reporting tracking deployments.[6]

When created in 1993, the USD(P&R) assumed authority primarily over three DoD offices: the

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Management Policy
. The ASD(FMP) has since been abolished, its responsibilities assumed by other officials reporting to the USD(P&R).

Reporting officials

Officials reporting to the USD (P&R) include:

Budget

Budget totals

The annual budget for the USD (P&R) is contained in the Office of the Secretary of Defense's (OSD) budget, under the Defense-Wide Operation and Maintenance (O&M) account.

USD Personnel and Readiness Budget, FY 10-12 ($ in thousands)[7]
Line Item FY10 Actual FY11 Estimate FY12 Request
Core OSD Operating Program[8]
Civilian Pay and Benefits, USD (P&R) 23,688 35,457 24,816
Program Structure[9]
Contracts and other Support Services 1,000 1,007 995
Advancing Diversity and Equal Opportunity Program 8,500 8,925 9,667
Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) 2,219 2,393 1,131
Assistant Secretary of Defense (Reserve Affairs) 2,364 2,691 2,018
Combatant Commander's Exercise 688,632 760,837 766,450
Defense Safety Oversight Council 10,692 12,615 12,550
Defense Readiness Reporting System 13,354 6,900 3,882
Lost Work Days System 3,230 3,060 3,032
Military Personnel Policy Naturalization Support 5,799 6,345 6,463
Military Spouse Intern Program 0 17,500 16,689
Studies Program 0 2,820 2,792
Training Transformation 6,563 6,035 5,112
Wounded Warrior Care and Transition Policy 43,664 79,412 77,623
Travel 1,338 1,402 817
Overseas Contingency Operations[10]
OCO OUSD (Intel) 2,064 0 0
Totals
Total Budget 813,107 947,399 934,037

Budget features

Office holders

Under Secretaries of Defense (Personnel and Readiness)[5]
No. Portrait Name Tenure Secretary(ies) of Defense Served Under President(s) Served Under
1 Edwin Dorn 16 March 1994 – 7 July 1997 William Perry Bill Clinton
William Cohen
2 Rudy de Leon 5 August 1997 – 31 March 2000
- Charles Cragin (acting) 31 March 2000 – 23 May 2000
3 Bernard D. Rostker 23 May 2000 – 19 January 2001
4 David S. C. Chu 1 June 2001 – 20 January 2009 Donald Rumsfeld George W. Bush
Robert Gates
- Gail H. McGinn (acting) 21 January 2009 – 8 February 2010 Barack Obama
5
Clifford Stanley
9 February 2010 – 27 October 2011
Leon Panetta[11][12]
- Jo Ann Rooney (acting)[13] 27 October 2011 – 8 June 2012
6 Erin C. Conaton[13] 8 June 2012 – 31 December 2012
7
Jessica Wright
1 January 2013 – 31 March 2015
Chuck Hagel
Ash Carter
- Brad Carson (acting) 2 April 2015 – 8 April 2016
- Peter Levine (DOD) Headshot Peter Levine (acting) 8 April 2016 – 20 January 2017
- Anthony Kurta (acting) 20 January 2017 – 30 November 2017 Jim Mattis Donald Trump
8 Robert Wilkie 30 November 2017 – 30 July 2018
- Stephanie Barna (acting) 30 July 2018 – 22 October 2018
- James N. Stewart (acting) 22 October 2018 – 13 December 2019
Mark Esper
- Matthew Donovan (acting) 13 December 2019 – 2 March 2020
- Alexis Lasselle Ross (acting) 3 March 2020 – 23 March 2020
9 Matthew Donovan 23 March 2020 – 20 January 2021
- Virginia S. Penrod (acting) 20 January 2021 – 24 August 2021[14] Lloyd Austin Joe Biden
10 Gil Cisneros 24 August 2021 – 8 September 2023
- Ashish Vazirani (acting) 8 September 2023 – present

Principal Deputy

The Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (PDUSD(P&R)) is the Under Secretary's chief staff assistant. PDUSD (P&R) is delegated full power and authority to act for the USD(P&R) and exercise the powers of the USD(P&R) on any and all matters that the USD(P&R) is authorized to act, except in those areas where delegation of the USD(P&R) authority is otherwise restricted by higher authority or prohibited by law.

Established as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) by the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2002 (P.L. 107-107), the post took over the duties of the

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Management Policy, which was then abolished. The DUSD(P&R) was re-designated Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), or PDUSD(P&R) in July 2003 by DoD Directive 5124.8.[5]
As of 2012, the position again holds the rank of Principal Deputy Under Secretary.

Principal Deputy Under Secretaries of Defense for Personnel and Readiness[5]
Name Tenure USD(P&R) served under SecDef(s) served under President(s) served under
Charles S. Abell 14 November 2002 – 11 July 2006 David S. C. Chu
Donald H. Rumsfeld
George W. Bush
Michael L. Dominguez 11 July 2006 – 20 January 2009
William J. Carr (acting) 20 January 2009 – 8 February 2010 Michael L. Dominguez (acting)
Robert M. Gates
Barack Obama
Lynn C. Simpson(Performing the duties of) 8 February 2010 – 2 June 2011 Gail McGinn (acting)
Jo Ann Rooney 2 June 2011 - 24 May 2012
Clifford Stanley
Leon Panetta
Vacant 24 May 2012 – 30 July 2014 Jessica L. Wright (acting) Chuck Hagel
Laura Junor 31 July 2014 – 31 July 2015 Jessica L. Wright
Brad Carson (acting)
Chuck Hagel
Ashton Carter
Ashish Vazirani 18 July 2022 – Gil Cisneros
Ashish Vazirani (acting)
Lloyd Austin Joe Biden

References

  1. ^ "OSD P&R Leadership". prhome.defense.gov. Retrieved 17 October 2019. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ^ "US Code: Title 10,136. Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness". Retrieved 21 September 2007.
  3. ^ http://prhome.defense.gov/MPP/, accessed June 2010
  4. ^ "H.R.2401". Retrieved 21 September 2007.
  5. ^ a b c d "Department of Defense Key Officials" (PDF). Historical Office, OSD. 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  6. ^ "S.1059". Retrieved 21 September 2007.
  7. ^ "Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Estimates, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)" (PDF). Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), OSD. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  8. ^ Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Estimates, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), p.664
  9. ^ Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Estimates, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), p.697-707
  10. ^ Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Estimates, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), p.714
  11. ^ "Biographies". U.S. Department of Defense.
  12. ^ "OSD P&R; Biographies: Hon. Erin C. Conaton". Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  13. ^ a b "Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness". prhome.defense.gov.
  14. ^ https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginia-penrod-87945524b