In this case, we are asked to review a decision of the Federal Labor Relations Authority ("FLRA" or "Authority") holding that certain collective bargaining proposals were nonnegotiable under Title VII of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. In its petition for review, Local 1167 of the National Federation of Federal Employees ("Local 1167") challenges the decision of the FLRA with respect to two proposals that it made during collective bargaining negotiations with the Department of the Air Force, Headquarters, 31st Combat Support Group (TAC), Homestead Air Force Base, Florida ("Homestead Air Force Base" or "the Agency"). In order to decide this case, we must consider the procedural requirements of negotiability appeals before the FLRA and the substantive law of negotiability in the federal sector. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the Authority's decision, based on the record before it, that both Union bargaining proposals here at issue were nonnegotiable.

A. The Negotiations and the Bargaining Proposals

In early 1979, Local 1167 and Homestead Air Force Base began negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. Negotiations continued through the spring and summer. On August 14, 1979, Local 1167 received a letter from agency officials at Homestead Air Force Base asserting that six of the Union's bargaining proposals were not within the Agency's duty to bargain under the Civil Service Reform Act. The two proposals relevant to our review involve the "contracting out" of work performed by bargaining unit employees. The first of these proposals states:

It shall be the policy of the Employer to consult openly and fully with the Labor Organization regarding any review of a function for contracting out within the unit. The Employer agrees that work shall not be contracted out when it can be demonstrated that work performed "in-house" is more economically and effectively performed. "Milestone Charts " related to review or feasibility studies for contracting out of work will be made available to the Labor Organization as actions are taken in accordance with such charts.1

The Labor Organization shall be furnished dates and times of the pre-bid and bid-opening conferences and shall have the right to have two Labor Organization representatives present at the conferences. The contract will not be awarded for at least ten work days following the bid opening conference.2

On August 27, 1979, Local 1167 appealed the Agency's claim of nonnegotiability to the FLRA, pursuant to section 7117(c)(2) of the Civil Service Reform Act, 5 U.S.C. § 7117(c)(2) (Supp. IV 1980). App. 1-11. The Authority granted Local 1167 an extension of time to comply with the filing requirements for negotiability appeals. App. 12-13; see 5 C.F.R. pts. 2424, 2429 (1982). Local 1167 complied in timely fashion. App. 14-16. Homestead Air Force Base then filed a timely statement explaining its allegations of nonnegotiability, as required by 5 U.S.C. § 7117(c)(3) (Supp. IV 1980). App. 17-33. Following its receipt of the Agency statement on November 21, 1979, Local 1167 had fifteen days to file a response. 5 U.S.C. § 7117(c)(4) (Supp. IV 1980). However, Local 1167 failed to meet this time limit when it responded on December 10, 1979, nineteen days after its receipt of the Homestead Air Force Base statement. App. 34-39.

The FLRA issued its Decision and Order on September 18, 1981. National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1167 (Homestead Air Force Base), 6 F.L.R.A. No. 105 (1981). Because the response by Local 1167 to the Agency statement was untimely, the Authority refused to consider it in reaching its decision, id., slip op. at 1, and accepted the factual representations made by Homestead Air Force Base. With respect to the "Milestone Charts" mentioned in the proposed Article 12.1, the FLRA stated:

(T)he Agency has explained that such charts are internal management recommendations, developed from feasibility studies, used by management officials in determining whether to contract out. Since this explanation is uncontroverted, it is adopted for purposes of this decision.

Id., slip op. at 4. With respect to the pre-bid and the bid-opening conferences mentioned in the proposed Article 12.3, the FLRA stated:

The Agency states that the pre-bid and bid-opening conferences are "wholly management related meetings at which the management aspects of the contracting out issue are either discussed or acted on, and which occur after the union has been afforded the opportunity to comment on the contracting out proposal." Since this explanation of the purpose and function of these conferences is uncontroverted, it is adopted for purposes of this decision.

Id., slip op. at 7. The FLRA also accepted the representation of Homestead Air Force Base that the proposed Article 12.3 was intended to permit the submission of views by Union officials in the pre-bid and bid-opening conferences. Id.

Based on the Agency explanations of the Milestone Charts, the bid conferences and the Union's intent with respect to Article 12.3, the FLRA ruled that the relevant portions of these two proposals were nonnegotiable. The Authority held that the last sentence of Article 12.1 was nonnegotiable because it would improperly involve Local 1167 "in management's internal deliberative process" and would "directly affect( ) the exercise of management's rights under section 7106(a)(2)(B) to make determinations with respect to contracting out." Id., slip op. at 5; see 5 U.S.C. § 7106(a)(2)(B) (Supp. IV 1980). The Authority also rejected the negotiability of the first sentence of Article 12.3, reasoning that Local 1167's involvement "in managerial deliberations and discussions ... would directly interfere with management's rights under the Statute to make determinations with respect to contracting out." National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1167, 6 F.L.R.A. No. 105, slip op. at 7.

Local 1167 filed a timely petition for review of the FLRA Decision and Order, limiting its challenges to the italicized portions of the two proposals set forth above. This court has jurisdiction pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 7123 (Supp. IV 1980).

Local 1167 makes both procedural and substantive attacks on the decision of the FLRA. We turn first to the Union claim that the FLRA unnecessarily limited its inquiry into the factual circumstances and agency rules relevant to the two proposals. We then consider whether the Authority's decision is consistent with the Civil Service Reform Act and relevant precedent.3

A. The Processing of Negotiability Disputes Before the FLRA

Negotiability disputes necessarily interrupt the normal process of collective bargaining. An agency's allegation that a union proposal falls outside of the public employer's duty to bargain at the least prevents the union from negotiating over the proposed contract term. In addition, the parties may be unable to agree on other contract terms until the negotiability dispute is resolved and, as a consequence, a final collective bargaining agreement may be prevented entirely.

Congress apparently understood the severe impact of negotiability disputes on effective collective bargaining. It therefore enacted section 7117(c) of the Civil Service Reform Act, which establishes an appeals procedure for the resolution of negotiability disputes by the FLRA on an expedited basis. 5 U.S.C. § 7117(c) (Supp. IV 1980).4 The section sets rigid time limits for filing a union appeal, an agency explanatory statement and a union response, see id. § 7117(c)(2)-(4), and the section directs the Authority to issue its decision "at the earliest practicable date," id. § 7117(c)(6).5 The appeals procedure is thus intended to resolve negotiability disputes speedily, thereby minimizing the interruption of normal collective bargaining.6

If Congress' purpose is to be achieved, the statutory time limits for filing union appeals, agency statements and union responses must be strictly observed. We therefore hold that the FLRA acted properly in the present case when it refused to consider the untimely response by Local 1167 to the statement of Homestead Air Force Base. Indeed, we do not understand Local 1167 to argue otherwise.

Local 1167 does argue, however, that despite its failure to file a timely response, the FLRA had an obligation to undertake a "substantive independent analysis of the content of the proposals to determine what effect, if any, they had on management rights." Brief for Petitioner at 24. Except to the extent that the FLRA is required to make an independent statutory interpretation of the Civil Service Reform Act, we cannot agree.

We hold that, in connection with negotiability disputes under section 7117(c), the parties must satisfy two principal responsibilities. First, the parties bear the burden of creating a factual record sufficient for the Authority to resolve the negotiability dispute. The FLRA has the statutory power to hold a hearing to aid in its decision, but such hearings are discretionary. 5 U.S.C. § 7117(c)(5) (Supp. IV 1980). In other words, the Authority is not obligated to conduct an independent factual investigation in order to secure record proof with respect to either party's claims. Were it otherwise, prompt resolution of negotiability disputes would be impossible.

Second, the parties should direct the Authority's attention, with as much specificity as possible, to the statutes and regulations relevant to an agency's duty to bargain. See 5 C.F.R. §§ 2424.6(a)(2), 2424.7(b) (1982). While the Authority plainly is not foreclosed from making an independent inquiry into the law relevant to each agency's exercise of management rights, the parties should not expect the Authority, sua sponte, to locate, analyze and apply all arguably pertinent regulations from the myriad of federal regulations governing the numerous federal agencies within the Authority's jurisdiction. The section 7117(c) appeals procedure could not possibly be expeditious if the FLRA were required in every case to supplement a party's incomplete analysis with respect to matters foreign to the Authority's area of expertise.

The FLRA fully met its procedural obligations in the present case. Because Local 1167 did not file its response to the Agency's statement within the statutory period, the Authority could properly accept the Agency's uncontroverted factual assertions regarding the purposes of Milestone Charts and of pre-bid and bid-opening conferences and the intent of Article 12.3. Admittedly, in its initial appeal, Local 1167 generally directed the Authority's attention to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-76 (rev. Mar. 29, 1979), which "establishes the policies and procedures used to determine whether needed commercial or industrial type work should be done by contract with private sources or in-house using Government facilities and personnel." Id. at 1, Volume of Exhibits at 3. The FLRA decision reveals, however, that the Authority considered OMB Circular A-76, but did not find it facially inconsistent with the detailed explanatory statement of Homestead Air Force Base.7 This finding was not irrational. We therefore conclude that the Authority followed the prescribed statutory procedures in this case and that its findings are supported by the record.

The obligation of a federal agency to bargain with the exclusive representative of its employees over the conditions of employment does not extend to the agency's exercise of the management rights declared in section 7106(a) of the Civil Service Reform Act. 5 U.S.C. § 7106(a) (Supp. IV 1980). Included in these express management rights is the authority "to make determinations with respect to contracting out." Id. § 7106(a)(2)(B). At the same time, section 7106(b) provides that section 7106(a) does not preclude negotiations about the "procedures which ... the agency will observe in exercising any authority." Id. § 7106(b)(2). "Thus, Title VII and § 7106 establish a balance between the nonnegotiable substantive rights of management and the negotiable procedures to be followed when management exercises its substantive rights." Veterans Administration Medical Center v. FLRA, 675 F.2d 260, 262 (11th Cir. 1982).

In the present case, the FLRA determined the negotiability of Local 1167's proposals under the Authority's "direct interference" test. See Department of Defense v. FLRA, 659 F.2d 1140, 1159-60 (D.C.Cir.1981), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 102 S. Ct. 1443, 71 L. Ed. 2d 658 (1982).8 Based on the factual record before it, the Authority concluded that the release of Agency deliberative memoranda under the proposed Article 12.1 would impair the Agency's decisionmaking process regarding contracting out.9 Similarly, the Authority concluded that the participation of Local 1167 representatives at bid conferences under the proposed Article 12.3 would directly interfere with Agency deliberations. We cannot say that these conclusions were unreasonable. "Congress intended the needed judgments to be made, not by this court, but by the Authority." Id. at 1161. Therefore, because the Authority's judgment in this case was not arbitrary or capricious, we affirm it.10

We recognize that the result in this case is somewhat anomalous. Because Local 1167 filed its response to the explanatory statement of Homestead Air Force Base four days late, the FLRA refused to consider it. The FLRA then issued its decision in the case twenty-one months after Local 1167's tardy filing. Yet today, we hold that Congress' concern for the expeditious resolution of negotiability disputes mandates strict application of the time limits in section 7117(c) and rules out any obligation by the FLRA to supplement the parties' submissions.

Unfortunately, we can do nothing in the present case to rectify the obvious disparity between congressional intent and Authority practice. Local 1167 failed to comply with the statutory requirements, and the Authority's decision, although long delayed, was not legally flawed. The Authority's decision warrants affirmance, but we have no praise for the FLRA case-handling process. Little is gained by insisting that the parties comply with strict time limits in order to expeditiously resolve negotiability disputes, only to have the FLRA take nearly two years to decide a relatively simple case. In this instance, the adverse consequence of the FLRA delay is clear: Local 1167 has been effectively foreclosed from negotiating a new collective bargaining contract to replace the agreement with Homestead Air Force Base that expired in January 1979. App. 62.

Even more unfortunate, it appears that the delay in this case was not unusual. One scholar has noted that "(i)n actual practice, the FLRA is taking from three months to more than a year before issuing negotiability decisions. This creates the difficulty of negotiations at the bargaining table being held in limbo until the FLRA issues the negotiability decision." H. Robinson, Negotiability in the Federal Sector 188 n.15 (Ithaca, New York: School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, 1981). Clearly, this is not what Congress envisioned when it enacted section 7117(c), see 5 U.S.C. § 7117(c)(6) (Supp. IV 1980), and it does not fulfill the Authority's "responsibil(ity) for carrying out the purpose of (Title VII of the Civil Service Reform Act)," id. § 7105(a)(1). We can only admonish the Authority in the strongest possible terms to improve upon its sad performance.

For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the FLRA properly rejected the tardy response by Local 1167 to the statement of Homestead Air Force Base, that the findings of the FLRA are supported by the record, and that the decision of the FLRA is consistent with the Civil Service Reform Act and relevant precedent. We therefore deny the petition for review and affirm the decision of the FLRA.

So ordered.