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U.S. President Bush derided Senate Democrats for hampering his efforts at creating a cabinet-level Homeland security department
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TRENTON
,
New Jersey
, September 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George
W. Bush warned Monday, September 23, he will veto legislation creating a
“Department of Homeland Security” unless it grants him sweeping new
powers to hire and fire employees.
“I
will not saddle this administration and future administrations with
allowing the United States Senate to micro-manage the process. The enemy
is too quick for that,” the president said during a daylong visit
here, saying the dispute over labor rights threatened to leave
America
unprepared to “take the enemy on.”
Last
Thursday at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association, Bush
said, “The Senate wants to take away some of the powers of the
administrative branch…The Senate wants to micromanage the process. And
I'm not going to let them do it.”
And
Saturday, Bush derided the U.S. Senate for pushing for labor rights,
calling their efforts “to fight against terror threats with one hand
tied behind its back.”
In
a national radio address the same day, Bush asserted, “One way for the
Congress to protect the American people is to pass legislation creating
a new department of homeland security…Yet, after three weeks, the
Senate has still not passed a bill I can sign.”
After
battling opposition Democrats’ plans to create of a
Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the
September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks, Bush earlier this year unveiled his own version of
the plan.
And
he has repeatedly warned that he will veto any legislation that does not
exempt the umbrella department's estimated 170,000 employees from labor
protections enjoyed by most federal workers, a move Democrats -
historically close to organized labor - oppose.
“We
must be flexible, we must be strong, we must be ready to take the enemy
on anywhere he decides to hit us, whether it’s
America
or anywhere else in the globe,” the president said here.
Bush,
who has praised the Republican-held House of Representatives for
approving his blueprint, urged the Democrat-held Senate to adopt a
compromise measure offered by Republican Phil Gramm and Democrat Zell
Miller.
“It’s
a bill I can accept. It’s a bill that will make
America
more secure. And anything less than that is a bill which I will not
accept,” said the president to about 2,000 people gathered in a
flag-adorned airport hangar at a New Jersey Army National Guard
facility.
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.
It
will take over the Coast Guard, Secret Service, Border Patrol and
Federal Emergency Management Agency among other services.
In
his nationally broadcast radio address on Saturday, Bush deplored the Democrats’
version for what he called a “cumbersome” five-month waiting period
to allow for background checks before department employees could be
hired and an 18-month grace period before employees could be fired.
“Even
worse, the Senate bill would weaken my existing authority to prohibit
collective bargaining when national security is at stake. Every
president since Jimmy Carter has had this very narrow authority
throughout the government, and I need this authority in the war on
terror,” he said.
Democrats,
however, maintain their concern for federal government employees, saying
Bush’s real motive is to strip civil service and collective bargaining
protections from federal employees.
Sen.
Joseph I. Lieberman (CT) said that Bush already has the freedom to
temporarily waive collective bargaining and other rights on national
security grounds.
And
Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) warned that too much
flexibility would take the federal workforce back to an era when people
were hired and fired based on party affiliation and other arbitrary
reasons, reports the Washington Post.
“This
is basically a question of accountability and making sure we never go
back to the politics of a federal workforce we saw in the bad old
days,” he said. “I don’t want to see someone fired because
they’re a Republican or a Democrat.”
