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Washington D.C. — Friday’s House committee markup of legislation that would deny fiscal 2008 funds to implement Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regressive personnel rules is another sign of “the growing bipartisan understanding in Congress” that the DHS rules would fail the nation, the leader of the union representing front-line homeland security workers said today.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) applauded House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee action in eliminating all funding for implementation of the rules in its markup of the fiscal 2008 DHS appropriations bill, a move that effectively would kill the regulations.

“Not only are the rules bad for the men and women who work so hard for DHS and its mission every day,” President Kelley said, “they are bad for our nation for a variety of reasons, including the critical one that they make it much more difficult for DHS to recruit and retain the high-quality employees so necessary in these key positions.”

The subcommittee markup comes on the heels of action earlier this month by the full House in approving by a vote of 292 to 126—despite the threat of a presidential veto—language in the fiscal 2008 DHS authorization bill that would repeal the DHS rules. An authorization bill lays out broad program guidelines for an agency.

Last year, key elements of the DHS regulations—those which would have severely restricted employees’ collective bargaining, due process and appeal rights—were declared illegal by federal courts in a lawsuit brought by NTEU. Despite that, DHS has said it intends to put in place segments of the regulations not impacted by the lawsuit; President Kelley has called on the agency not to move forward with that plan.

The appropriations subcommittee also included in its markup language that would extend, on a prospective basis, law enforcement officer (LEO) retirement benefits to officers in DHS’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

President Kelley welcomed, as well, the vote on extending LEO status—opposed by the administration—to officers who make up the first line of defense at the nation’s border crossing points.

Even as she applauded this step, however, the NTEU leader said the union will continue its long-running effort to secure LEO coverage for previous service of current CBP Officers. LEO status carries with an early-retirement option.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including more than 14,000 in CBP.