Agreement Reached on Creation of
Homeland Security Department

Eight days after the mid-term elections, the increased hold of the Republican Party over the federal government has shaken lose the months-old stalemate over the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security, the largest and most far-reaching U.S. government reorganization, arguably, since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947.

Legislation creating the new department has been stalled in Congress, not due to any fundamental disagreement over whether such an approach is the best way to provide security at home for the American people, but rather over what level of management flexibility is appropriate for an agency that will be faced with that quasi-military task.

President George W. Bush insisted that in creating and operating the new agency, he needed the ability to lift labor rights in a national emergency as well as gain exemptions from a number of civil service rules covering labor issues for federal employees. Initially, the president wanted to be able to remove some critical employees from unions without interference, a right exercised by all presidents since Jimmy Carter. Bush wanted to avoid having to submit removals to the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The administration also wanted to bypass hiring rules in order to cut the time it takes to hire a federal employee, which in September was said to take an average of five months, and introduce performance-related incentives into pay. The ability to transfer workers between different parts of the department to meet changing needs was also sought, as well as the ability to dismiss unsatisfactory workers without excessive appeals.

After the elections, attempts to reach a resolution on the issue were resumed, and reached fruition when three centrist lawmakers, Sens. John Breaux, D-La., Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Lincoln D. Chafee, R-R.I., gave way on an amended administration plan. Their new stance on the issue may well have been significantly influenced by the fate of some of their colleagues who had opposed the legislation on labor grounds prior to the Nov. 5 election. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., for example, a Vietnam veteran, triple amputee, and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was ousted despite his record, after Republicans hammered home this point. The three senators continued voicing their objections even as they fell in with the president’s wishes. (They had earlier failed in an attempt to have compromise bill with stronger worker protections adopted.)

The final version of the bill gives Bush most of the authority he was seeking but did make some concessions to opponents. The president will be able to waive collective bargaining rights where the security of the nation is seen as threatened, but any workplace changes involving the expected workforce of 170,000 from 22 different agencies will have to be negotiated with unions. Workers’ unions will have 30 days to contest proposed changes, and if no agreement is reached Congress will have to be informed, which will allow protests from members. However, if mediation efforts have not reached success after another 30 days, the new department will be able to implement changes as it sees fit. The decision to ban bargaining rights will have to be formalized in writing, and will be limited to four years. The agreement drew an expected protest from the union most involved, the American Federation of Government Employees, which said that the compromise "[had] nothing to do with improving security."

The compromise bill leaves the number of agencies that are to be incorporated into the new department unchanged from the president’s first proposal, despite some earlier disagreement about the incorporation of several agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard. It will allow commercial pilots to carry guns in cockpits, endorsing earlier legislation passed separately by the House and the Senate. It also pushes back by one year the previous Jan. 1, 2003, deadline for airports to screen all passenger luggage for explosives, which has increasingly appeared logistically impossible due to the demands of implementing such arrangements at all airfields in the entire country.

The agreement sets the stage for final approval of the legislation by both houses of Congress and for the initial establishment of the department. Navy Secretary Gordon England is widely expected to head the new department, as he is reported to be frustrated with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s approach to defense management. However, the standing-up process will have to be carefully managed if it is not to degrade the ability of the department’s constituent agencies to carry out their security functions as the new department finds its feet.

 
Sources

“Deal Reached on Homeland Security,” Associated Press, Nov. 13, 2002

Helen Dewar, Homeland Bill Gets Boost, Washington Post, Nov. 13, 2002

Alan Fram, “Bush Urges Congress on Homeland Bill,” Associated Press, Nov.12, 2002

David Rogers and Jeanne Cummings, Bush Gains on Homeland-Bill Terms, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 13, 2002

 

Colin Robinson CDI Research Analyst crobinson@cdi.org

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