Category: Uncategorized

Historically and for reasons of urgency it would appear that much of the decision making within the Department’s headquarters has been made by a core group of trusted appointees.–HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISORY COUNCIL REPORT OF THE CULTURE TASK FORCE January 2007 (p. 6). Chaired by Herb Kelleher – Executive Chairman, Southwest Airlines Co.

By Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee
Congressional Record
May 9, 2007 (H4662)

The flexibility we originally granted in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 has not worked. That is why I offered an amendment repealing the DHS human resources personnel system.

The Department has abused the flexibility given by Congress. They have created a personnel system that eviscerates employee due process rights and puts in serious jeopardy the agency’s ability to recruit and retain a workforce capable of accomplishing its critical missions.

We initially believed that the flexibility given the Department would allow it to respond better in times of crisis. We know now that nothing could be further from the truth. The abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina taught us that lesson.

Despite Court rulings, however, on March 7, 2007, DHS announced that it will put into effect portions of the personnel system not specifically enjoined by the Court. Just a few weeks earlier, DHS outlined plans to move slower on its controversial personnel overhaul, formerly known as MaxHR, but now called the Human Capital Operations Plan or HCOP.

Implementing these plans would further undercut the fairness of the appeals process for DHS employees by eliminating the Merit Systems Protection Board’s current authority to modify agency-imposed penalties. These regulations would also provide the Secretary sole discretion to identify offenses and impose employee penalties as well as appoint a panel to decide the employee appeals the Secretary’s action.

According to U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, these regulations put the thumbs of the agencies down hard on the scales of justice in [the agencies’] favor.

The Federal Appeals Court agreed with the District Court’s basic conclusion regarding the lack of fairness of these planned changes in adverse action and appeal rights, but ruled that they were not yet ripe for a decision since no one has been subject to discipline under them. It is clear that another court case will be filed should DHS put these provisions into place and an employee is harmed by the new adverse actions and appeals procedures.

Some insisted that employees would be happier and more efficient if they were managed more like the private sector. We know now that nothing could be further from the truth. The Department’s morale ratings have consistently been at or near the bottom of all federal agencies.

In February of this year, the Department of Homeland Security received the lowest scores of any Federal agency on a Federal survey for job satisfaction, leadership and workplace performance. Of the 36 agencies surveyed: DHS ranked 36th on job satisfaction, 35th on leadership and knowledge management, 36th on results-oriented performance culture, and 33rd on talent management.

We know that the Department too often does not listen to their employees. In fact, the National Treasury Employees Union, NTEU, sent me a letter on behalf of the 15,000 employees of DHS’ Bureau of Customs and Border Protection thanking me for introducing my amendment repealing DHS’ failed human resource management system, MaxHR. Despite its incredibly low morale, the Department is not changing its plans to implement MaxHR. Instead the Department is merely changing the name of an unpopular and troubled system. MaxHR will become HCOP.

With the abysmal morale and extensive recruitment and retention challenges at DHS, implementing these personnel changes now will only further undermine the agency’s employees and mission. From the beginning of discussions over personnel regulations with DHS more than 4 years ago, it was clear that the only system that would work in this agency is one that is fair, credible and transparent. These regulations promulgated under the statute fail miserably to provide any of those critical elements. It is time to end this flawed personnel experiment.

So it is time for Congress to once again step in. It is time to say to the dedicated workers of the Department of Homeland Security that they deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect granted to other federal employees. Therefore, I thank my Homeland Security colleagues who supported my amendment repealing DHS’ failed human resource management system because Homeland Security is too important to get it wrong again.

[Congressional Record
Pages: H4665 – H4666]

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO,
Washington, DC, May 7, 2007.

DEAR REPRESENTATIVE: On behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 26,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) workers, I strongly urge you to vote in support of passage of H.R. 1684, the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. The legislation responds to many issues AFGE has raised on behalf of the Border Patrol Agents, Customs and Border Protection Officers, Transportation Security Officers, Federal Protective Service Officers and other workers important to the agency’s mission of keeping our country safe.

H.R. 1684 supports DHS workers by repealing the portion of MAXHR (the agency’s flawed attempt to re-make civil service rules and protections) relating to employee appeal rights and performance management goals. The repeal of these provisions is of great importance because DHS has stated its intention to implement MAXHR regulations on employee appeal rights and performance management goals despite the likelihood that they will be overturned in federal court. The legislation also restores statutory authority for collective bargaining rights for DHS workers because the DHS regulations establishing a new collective bargaining system have been overturned by the courts. The reinstatement of fairness in DHS workplace rules and procedures is vitally important to keeping the expertise of highly trained, committed homeland security professionals at the agency.

H.R. 1684 recognizes the legitimate law enforcement responsibilities of Customs and Border Patrol Officers by including them in the federal Law Enforcement Retirement System, and strengthens Border Patrol Officer recruitment and retention measures, which will ensure that there are adequate personnel available to patrol our borders. The legislation also includes provisions that will prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from implementing its unsound plan to eliminate police officers and special agents at the Federal Protective Service. H.R. 1684 recognizes that worker security in the DHS workplace facilitates greater homeland security for us all.

The workers at DHS have performed above and beyond the call of duty, even with bad workplace rules and policies. H.R. 1684 recognizes the contribution of the men and women on the front lines of security and provides them with the resources necessary to ensure that they continue to provide the best security in the world today. AFGE again strongly urges you to vote in support of H.R. 1684.

Sincerely,
Beth Moten,
Legislative and Political Director.

---

THE NATIONAL TREASURY
EMPLOYEES UNI*N
Washington, DC, May 7, 2007

Re Vote Yes on H.R. 1684, FY 2008 Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act

DEAR REPRESENTATIVE: I am writing on behalf of the 150,000 members of the National Treasury Employees Uni*n (NTEU) including 15,000 employees at the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to urge you to vote for passage of H.R. 1684, a bill t

o authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2008 for DHS.

H.R. 1684 includes many provisions that will enhance DHS’s national security mission. Of particular importance is Section 512 a provision that repeals the failed DHS human resource management system established by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the subsequent regulations issued by DHS.

In February of this year, DHS received the lowest scores of any federal agency on a federal survey for job satisfaction, leadership and workplace performance. Of the 36 agencies surveyed, DHS ranked 36th on job satisfaction, 35th on leadership and knowledge management, 36th of results-oriented performance culture, and 33rd on talent management. As I have stated previously, widespread dissatisfaction with DHS management and leadership creates a morale problem that affects the safety of this nation.

The four-year DHS personnel experiment has been a litany of failure because the law and the regulations effectively gut employee due process rights and put in serious jeopardy the agency’s ability to recruit and retain a workforce capable of accomplishing its critical missions. When Congress passed the Homeland Security Act in 2002, it granted the new department very broad discretion to create new personnel rules. It basically said that DHS could come up with new systems as long as employees were treated fairly and continued to be able to organize and bargain collectively.

The regulations DHS came up with did not even comply with these two very minimal and basic requirements and subsequent court rulings confirmed this truth. It should be clear to Congress that DHS has learned little from these court losses and repeated survey results and will continue to overreach in its attempts to implement the personnel provisions included in the Homeland Security Act of 2002. On March 7,2007, DHS announced that it will implement portions these compromised personnel regulations that were not explicitly ruled illegal by the courts.

With the abysmal morale and extensive recruitment and retention challenges at DHS, implementing these personnel changes now will only further undermine the agency’s employees and mission. From the beginning of discussions over personnel regulations with DHS more than four years ago, it was clear that the only system that would work in this agency is one that is fair, credible and transparent. These regulations promulgated under the statute fail miserably to provide by of those critical elements. It is time to end this flawed personnel experiment Passage of H.R. 1684 will accomplish this.

Also included in this legislation is Section 501, a provision that finally recognizes the Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) status of CBP Officers (CBPOs). Section 501 grants prospective LEO status and benefits to CBPOs as of March 2003. NTEU recognizes Section 501 as a significant breakthrough in achieving LEO status for those CBPOs on the frontlines protecting our nation’s sea, air, and land ports. NTEU members appreciate this significant first step and vows to work with Congress to assure comprehensive coverage of all CBPOs.

NTEU strongly supports H.R. 1684 and urges you to vote to approve the bill this week on the House floor and oppose any amendments that would weaken the above-mentioned provisions.

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Jean Hutter with the NTEU Legislation Department.

Sincerely,
Colleen M. Kelley,
National President

Email from Jay Johnson-Castro

Afternoon Freedom Ambassadors…

When Hutto Vigil IX was announced…for June 23rd…

…another group headed up by Antonio Diaz of the Texas Indigenous Council was in the planning stages of a June 9th vigil at Hutto. While this was not done to confuse anyone…there seems to be a little confusion. Let’s try to clarify it this way.

Hutto Vigil IX. This is a Hutto Vigil. It is headed up by Antonio Diaz and his group. We will therefore identify it as Hutto Vigil IX. It will be held on June 9th. We applaud the initiative and encourage all who can to support it. We encourage you to call Antonio to get the specifics. For info call (210)396=9805. E-mail: texasindigenouscouncil@yahoo.com.

Hutto Vigil X. This is the vigil sponsored by Amnesty International. Many organizations have committed to support that vigil, including LULAC. This vigil will be held on June 23rd. Amnesty International will make the public announcement with the exact details at a future date. The Hutto Vigil X date of June 23rd was selected because it falls on the weekend of the International Day of the Refugee. Folks will be coming from around the country to attend Hutto Vigil X.

Here’s a brief yet special update from Freedom Ambassadors…Gloria Benacci and two daughters…who came up with the coveted “No Child Left Behind Bars” buttons. Gloria says:

“We have T-shirts…logo, white with black/red printing front and back…Spanish and English. (see attached) Only need a better estimate on how many we need. The T-shirts are high quality and our printer does an incredible job.”

These T-shirts will be available for a suggested donation. For more information on the buttons and T-shirts…we invite y’all to visit Free the Children at MySpace where we are approaching 2000 friends…and according to Gloria…going on 10,000.

Regarding the Hutto vigils…we cannot have too many. If anything…we should try to have more. We should all try to muster up all of the expressed outrage that we can…against the imprisonment of innocent little children…and those who would profit off of them.

Hutto is like an ugly boil that has come to the head. It is so in your face. It violates everything we believe as a people. Unless we put a stop to this kind of abuse of democracy…such atrocities will go from ugly to uglier. Why do we say that? In May of last year…for the Hutto dedication…the proud architect of imprisoning innocent children…Chertoff, himself…bragged about Hutto being the prototype for future prison camps for families.

We the people happen to disagree with this demented concept and we are letting Chertoff, Bush, Congress, the U.N….and the world community know…that in no uncertain terms…we will not tolerate such conduct that defies all universal laws. Americans with a conscience will keep growing in numbers and massing together…to free the innocent children of the world. Taking down their prize razor wire, after months of protest, does not change the fact that the tender lives of little ones are being abused by the world’s biggest bullies.

In solidarity…we come to their rescue. We come to demand their freedom…and the freedom of their mothers. We come to defend our family and our race. The human family and the human race.

No Child Left Behind Bars

Free the Children

Jay

“If you make peaceful change impossible….. you make violent revolution inevitable.” President John F Kennedy

A Sunday Sermon

OpEdNews

By Greg Moses

Studying recent Congressional debates over the Department of Homeland Security reminds us why we much prefer covering activists and social issues rather than policymakers and policy. But clearly, activism meets policy somewhere. And the better we understand where policy is coming from, the better activists we can be. So we work through the eye burn.

As a basic set of working hypotheses, we first like what the Kelleher report says about Homeland Security leadership — that the department is run by a cadre of Bush appointees who will soon find themselves out of power.

Next we add the survey showing DHS employees to be the most demoralized workers in federal employ — telling us that the cadre of Bush appointees won’t find their doors hitting them fast enough on the way out, insofar as the rank and file are concerned.

On top of these happy hypotheses we note that the agency of 200,000 employees exceeds the recent ability of Congress to comprehend it. The authorization bill for 2006 never passed the Senate, while the 2007 bill never even passed the House.

Without authorization bills, Congress has funded the agency by a process that Rep. Farr of California calls a “hold your nose and vote” approach. Which has only, we assume, increased the demoralizing power of Bush appointees to issue orders as they please.

As a big-picture assumption, therefore, we shall say that the Department of Homeland Security deserves as much respect as one would give to any cadre of Bush appointees who have broken free of civil service and Congressional traditions.

In recent Congressional debates over the 2008 program at DHS, we see that at least the House has passed an authorization bill, and that minimally, House leadership has attempted to restore the checks and balances of civil service and Congressional oversight, to some degree.

We are not distracted, therefore, by Republican denunciations regarding “earmarks”. Yes, we would like to see more transparency, but on balance the current trend of Democratic leadership appears to be perforating a cuticle that was only thickening under Republican rule.

Republicans complain that Democratic leadership is acting like the new machine in town, as if that old cadre of Bush appointees weren’t trying to rumble like the old one.

Republicans also complain (with some apparent Democrat collaboration) that the xenophobic border barriers are being bogged down in committee. To which we say, oh, no kidding?

And so, on the basis of these very general and hasty hypotheses, we have a few hopes to share.

With respect to the workings of DHS in the Dallas area, we would like to see Congressional powers and civil service forces stiffen their civil resistance against the demoralizing effects of Bush appointees, boldly treating them like the lame ducks they are.

But what about Homeland Security, is it not a national concern?

Here we find the Congressional debates helpful. If we think of Homeland Security as hometown security, as suggested by California Congressman Sam Farr, then it becomes obvious to observers of the Texas scene — especially lately in Dallas — that the effective priorities of the Bush cadre appear to have little to do with making our neighborhoods more comfortable places for people to live.

Email from Riad Hamad

Dear Friends,

Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund is pleased to announce that our volunteers and friends in Palestine have been able to send us several videos from Palestine showing the joy and pain of living in Palestine under the occupation. Please click on the link below

http://www.marhabafrompalestine.com
and walk the streets of the city of Hebron, the city under siege due to the presence of more than 500 Zionist settlers. You can also see the images of a Palestinian farmer tilling the land to feed his family and keep the ancient Palestinian tradition and connection to the land.

Our friends in Beitlehm sent the images of the Church of Nativity and the Manger Square, surrounded by the apartheid wall and deprived of their basic human rights to live with dignity, to work and share their homes and lives with the rest of humanity.

The children of Gaza celebrated Mother’s Day two weeks ago and enjoyed gifts and meals provided by PCWF to give them hope and a sense of pride in a world that forgot them and abandoned them long time ago. Please take few minutes and see several pieces of artwork made by the prisoners in the Israeli jail submitted by our friends from Alfaraa who collected the images from an event held in Alfaraa refugee camp last month.

The Israeli soldiers provided us with ample images of their brutality in Bi’ilin that you can see under the section. You can also bookmark the page and you come back every few days to see more videos and more crimes documented till the conscience of the world wakes up and the Israeli government and its armed forces are put on trial for war crimes.

We hope that you will spend some time viewing the videos, learning about Palestine, sharing the stories and the videos with your friends and ask them to support the children and the farmers in Palestine. If you have given up on Palestine and the Palestinians, the videos and the stories on the website will tell you lout clear, that the heroes inside Palestine are ready and willing to continue the struggle.

THANKS for your patience, work and support

Salamat
Riad Elsolh Hamad,
Coordinator,
Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund
http://www.pcwf.org
http://www.marhabafrompalestine.com

Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund. 201 W. Stassney # 201, Austin, Texas 78745 Support the children of Palestine by buying Palestinian arts and crafts. Sustain the Palestinian economy and provide jobs for the men, women and farmers in Palestine to live with pride and dignity TILL WE RETURN.