To carry out its operations, SSS is authorized a staff of  197 civilians (166 on board as of June 1, 1997); 15 active military personnel (2 additional positions are funded by the Air Force); 745 part-time authorized reservists (518 are funded); 56 part-time state directors (one in each state, territory, the District of Columbia, and New York City); and  10,635 uncompensated civilian volunteer members of local, review, and various appeal boards. We did not validate the current DOD requirements for inductees. Effects of the Options on Organization and Costs

The portions of the $22.9 million 1997 budget that could be most affected by the alternatives total approximately $15.2 million: $7.4 million for the registration program and $7.8 million for operational readiness. According to SSS officials, under the suspended registration alternative,  74 civilian, 4 active duty military, and 241 part-time reserve positions may be eliminated. SSS officials estimated first-year cost savings of $4.1 million and subsequent annual cost savings of $5.7 million under this alternative. Also, 10,395 local and appeal board members and 240 civilian review board members (all unpaid volunteers) would be dismissed. SSS officials estimated first-year cost savings of $8.5 million and subsequent annual cost savings of $11.3 million under this alternative. Time and Costs Required to Reinstitute Full Operations

Under either the suspended registration or the deep standby alternative, reactivation of a draft registration process would be initiated upon receipt of authorization. SSS officials estimate that recovering from suspended registration or a deep standby and delivering the first draftees to the induction centers would take more time than DOD’s current 193-day requirement. They estimate it would take about 24 more days to deliver the first draftees after recovering from the suspended registration alternative. The officials expect that the recovery costs would total about $17.2 million. SSS officials also estimate that revitalizing the agency from a deep standby posture and delivering the first draftees would take about 181 more days than DOD’s current requirement and would cost about $22.8 million. SSS officials informed us that if the agency reinstated registration after having operated under either the suspended registration or deep standby option, it would need to conduct a time-limited registration of the 19- and 20-year-old groups and then conduct a continuous registration of all males in the remaining age groups (those between the ages of 21 and 26). At that time, SSS conducted two time-limited registrations, after recovering from a deep standby posture. SSS officials stated that the agency’s main problem in gearing up in 1980 was in reinstating and activating the local, district appeal, and national boards in preparation for a possible draft. We made preliminary inquiries regarding four alternatives to SSS’ present operations, that is, two passive registration alternatives, a suspended active registration alternative, and a deep standby alternative. For the two remaining alternatives, we obtained from SSS estimates of costs that could be saved upon implementation of either alternative. SSS also gave us time estimates for the revitalization of both the registration process and the board structure and its assessment of the alternatives’ effects on meeting DOD’s manpower and mobilization time frame requirements. Registrants should receive a registration acknowledgement and a Selective Service number within 90 days.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the organization and costs of the Selective Service System (SSS) draft registration program and estimates of the comparative costs and organizational structure changes of two selected alternatives: (1) a suspended registration alternative, under which most of SSS' infrastructure would remain intact, including a significant portion of its staff and all of its local, district appeal, civilian review, and national boards; and (2) a deep standby alternative, which would suspend registration, reduce a substantial portion of the workforce, and disband the local, district appeal, civilian review, and national boards.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) most of SSS' potential cost reductions, under either a suspended registration or a deep standby alternative, would result from reductions in personnel; (2) SSS estimates that the suspended registration alternative would reduce authorized and assigned civilian, active military, and part-time military reserve personnel by about 33 percent; (3) these reductions would produce first-year cost savings of $4.1 million and subsequent annual cost savings of $5.7 million; (4) SSS estimates that the deep standby alternative would reduce authorized civilian, active military, and part-time reserve personnel by about 60 percent; (5) the latter alternative reflects a dismissal of thousands of trained, unpaid local, review, and appeal board volunteers; (6) under the deep standby alternative, the part-time state directors, who according to SSS officials are paid for an average of 14 days of work per year, would not be paid; (7) altogether, these reductions would produce first-year cost savings of $8.5 million and subsequent annual cost savings of $11.3 million; (8) under both alternatives, mass registrations would be needed if a mobilization were authorized; (9) SSS' plans show that the agency could currently meet the Department of Defense's (DOD) requirement to provide the first draftees at 193 days; (10) in contrast, SSS officials believe that the agency would be unable to meet DOD's current requirements for unpaid manpower under either alternative; (11) the reason cited is the time needed to reinstate an active registration system (for either alternative), to reconstitute and train the boards, and to rebuild their supporting infrastructure (for the deep standby alternative); (12) SSS officials estimate that in reinstating registration after suspension, they could meet DOD's requirement for the first draftees in about 217 days; (13) they also estimate that in reinstating a registration system, reconstituting and training the boards, and rebuilding the supporting infrastructure after a deep standby posture, they could meet DOD's requirement for the first draftees in about 374 days; (14) officials told GAO that these estimates represent their best assessment of the time required to return to full operations; and (15) SSS officials also estimated that the cost to reinstate a suspended registration could total about $17.2 million and the cost to revitalize the agency from a deep standby posture could total about $22.8 million.