So Much For Security - DHS Budget Takes Another Hit

DHS Personnel System Funding Takes Another Hit

In a time when we need more people in our ports, securing our airports, and gurading our borders, DHS has taken another budget hit... But that may be why the National Guard is being tasked with Border Patrol reinforcement duties. We have overtaxed our National Guard and Reserve Units, our Border Patrol, Customs, INS and now we are cutting funds to those vital resources... In this case the program cut would base DHS employee pay on merit and performance rather than time spent on the roster and seniority by means of attrition. Perhaps the $15 million needed to be cut for this purpose, but it did not need to be re-directed away from DHS resources. But we should be cutting funds to the NSA domestic spying program... and then we could put that money to good (double meaning for the word "good") use.

Funding for the Homeland Security Department office responsible for implementing a controversial personnel system took a hit Thursday, when the House voted to direct $15 million away from it and toward firefighters.

An amendment to the fiscal 2007 DHS appropriations bill, offered by Rep. Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., pulled a total of $125 million from three offices, including $15 million sought by the White House for the Office of the Undersecretary for Management. The House approved the language by a voice vote.

Of the $125 million, $111 million went to firefighters' grants and the remaining $14 million went to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Relief Fund, said Travis Talvitie, a spokesman for Sabo.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which has long opposed the new personnel system, lauded the House action.

"DHS's continuing efforts to move forward with [the personnel system's] implementation, despite NTEU victories in court declaring large portions of the system illegal, are threatening our national security and causing dangerously low morale among front-line employees," said Colleen Kelley, the union's president.

The system features a market- and performance-based pay approach to replace the decades-old General Schedule under which most civil servants work.

Thursday afternoon's passage of the amendment constitutes the second time in recent weeks that the personnel system has taken a hit in funding.

The House Appropriation Committee's Subcommittee on Homeland Security voted early this month to provide $29.7 million for the system, the same amount it got for 2006 but far short of President Bush's request for nearly $42 million.

In a statement released Thursday, the White House said it "is opposed to any effort to reduce or eliminate funding" for the personnel system.

A final vote on the $32.1 billion DHS appropriations bill (H.R. 5441) has been delayed until the House returns from Memorial Day recess.