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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing a substantial number of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees today expressed her serious concern over a hiring freeze in two key front-line bureaus at the agency.

These bureaus, said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), “can ill afford a hiring freeze with the department yet to fulfill the staffing levels authorized in the Patriot Act or the Border Security Act.”

“By any measure, it is clear that the threat of terrorism continues to be a serious national concern, a fact of life that should be prodding DHS to meet staffing goals like the tripling of security personnel on the U.S. northern border, as called for in the Patriot Act,” said Kelley.

President Kelley noted that while NTEU supported additional funding for DHS in the fiscal 2004 appropriations cycle, the administration rejected congressional attempts to increase the DHS budget.

The hiring freeze for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is apparently in response to DHS’s inability to account for a $1.2 billion segment of its budget.

“Whether the department is experiencing a computer glitch or a budget shortfall,” President Kelley said, its inability to account for the $1.2 billion “casts serious doubt” on DHS’s ability to manage its resources, and raises troubling questions as to its ability to design and implement a new and extremely complex performance management system.

Under sweeping new personnel regulations proposed by DHS, the agency would begin moving its employees from the General Schedule pay system to an untested and administratively nightmarish system. DHS is seeking $100 million from Congress in fiscal year 2005 simply to design the system.

“At a minimum, Congress should put the $100 million requested for an unwise new pay system toward hiring more front-line personnel to protect our borders, and Congress should also make sure DHS gets its accounting methods in order,” said Kelley.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 29 agencies and departments.