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The Senate Appropriations Committee has reduced sharply—to only $5 million, down from the White House budget request of $15 million—fiscal 2008 funding for use by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in connection with new personnel regulations. It was the second such move impacting the DHS rules recently.
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee signaled its disapproval of the system by providing zero funding in its approval of the DHS fiscal 2008 appropriations bill for implementation of the rules, which would result in a new and regressive personnel scheme on its employees. The House committee did provide DHS with $3 million for a human capital study. The full House is expected to approve the DHS appropriations bill today.
President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which is the exclusive representative of employees in DHS’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and which has been leading the successful effort over the past two years to reduce such funding, welcomed the bipartisan understanding in both the House and Senate of the potential serious negative impact of the rules.
“It’s been clear from the start the personnel system DHS tried to impose is neither fair, credible nor transparent,” she said. “It falls of its own weight, and should be abandoned by the agency.”
DHS originally was provided with the right to develop a new system—with appropriate safeguards for employee rights, which were then not followed by DHS and the Office of Personnel Management—in the 2002 Homeland Security Act, which established the department.
A federal court suit initiated and pursued by NTEU resulted in both district and appeals courts enjoining implementation of segments of the rules dealing with collective bargaining, due process and appeals. Subsequently, DHS has said it wants to implement parts of the regulations not enjoined—an effort President Kelley has called upon the agency not to pursue.
NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing more than 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.