U.S. Congress Votes To Create Cabinet Level Homeland Security Department
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WASHINGTON, July 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Friday, July 26, to create a new government department charged with protecting the country from terrorist attack, but set the stage for a bitter clash with the Senate over labor rights.
The bill, H.R. 5005, which passed 295-132, came on the heels of the first public dispute between President George W. Bush and Senate Democrats over reconciling national security needs with demands for job security and worker participation in management.
President Bush has threatened to veto the congressional bill if Congress does not grant him enough flexibility in the administration of the new agency, which would employ up to 190,000 people.
And according to congressional officials, it is likely to add fuel to the conflict rather than smooth it over.
The House measure accepts the bulk - but not all - of Bush's proposal to merge various security services into a single agency responsible for protecting Americans from a repeat of September 11.
The Department of Homeland Security, as envisioned by the White House and House members, will have more than 170,000 employees and an annual budget of 38 billion dollars.
It will take over the Coast Guard, Secret Service, Border Patrol and Federal Emergency Management Agency among other services.
The legislation exempts the new institution from the Freedom of Information Act, which provides for declassification of secret government documents after 30 years.
But contrary to Bush's wishes, the House banned the so-called "Operation TIPS," under which the Justice Department was to recruit truck and taxi drivers and postal workers as its unpaid informants in the war on terror.
Also nixed was the idea of introducing national driver's licenses and other identity cards currently issued by states.
"This is a victory for the future of America," declare an elated Republican Representative J.C. Watts. "This is a victory for the security of our nation."
Bush shared this enthusiasm, commending members of the House for embarking on the most extensive reorganization of the federal government since the 1940s.
"This bill includes the major components of my proposal - providing for intelligence analysis and infrastructure protection, strengthening our borders, improving the use of science and technology to counter weapons of mass destruction, and enhancing our preparedness and response capabilities," the president said in a written statement.
However, following White House recommendations, the House freed the new department from existing civil service pay grades, altered hiring and firing procedures and limited the role labor unions can play in management decisions.
In addition, it passed an amendment offered by Republican Christopher Shays that gives the president the right to waive worker protection rights in the interest of national security.
This stance touched off a furor among labor unions, with Bobby Harnage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, arguing "this same freedom-from-rules approach brought America the unprecedented crash-and-burn corporate scandals of Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen."
Moreover, the White House and House Republicans found themselves on a collision course with the Senate, which is working on a homeland security bill spearheaded by Democrat Joseph Lieberman that maintains most of current worker protection rights.
The Lieberman bill was approved by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee by a vote of 12-5 on Thursday, but was met the next morning by a stern veto threat from Bush.
"I'm not going to accept legislation that limits or weakens the president's well-established authorities - authorities to exempt parts of government from federal-labor management relations statute - when it serves our national interest," the President Bush said, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported
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