Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) personnel management demonstration project, focusing on personnel management authorities available to NIST and the effects of the Federal Employees' Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA) on the project.

GAO found that: (1) FEPCA should not significantly affect the demonstration project, since FEPCA did not cover many of the authorities available under the project; (2) the authorities available to NIST are available to other agencies; (3) special NIST pay-banding and pay-for-performance systems are authorities offering greater grade and pay-setting flexibility than the General Schedule system; and (4) the NIST demonstration project allows comparison to private-sector compensation levels, but NIST has not used this authority.