Over the past year or so, a great deal has been written about the problems of the performance-based pay programs at the U.S. Departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS). Employee complaints also forced changes in new pay programs adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Critics argue that the record shows that pay for performance cannot succeed in government, but that stance ignores the many successes, starting with China Lake in 1980. Moreover, the General Schedule (GS) system is generally acknowledged to need replacement, so the focus needs to shift to understanding how to plan and gain acceptance for new practices that will serve government in the future.