Administration defends request for waiver of civil service rules

A senior Bush administration official Tuesday urged Congress to grant the secretary of the new Homeland Security Department broad freedom to waive civil service laws-and underscored the White House's displeasure with a vote by a House committee last week to reject that request.

Kay Coles James, director of the Office of Personnel Management, told the House Homeland Security Committee that it is "almost mind-boggling" that Congress would restrict the president's ability to make "quick decisions about management" for the new department while the country is at war.

"This is not a time to diminish that authority," James said.

At issue is an amendment Rep. Constance Morella, R-Md., added in the Government Reform Committee last week limiting the president's authority to waive civil service laws for the 170,000 employees of the new department.

At today's hearing, Republicans voiced strong support for the administration's proposal on the civil service laws.

"At a time when national security concerns are pre-eminent, this provision would give the president less discretion than he has over any other department," said Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Still, Democrats blasted the proposal, charging it would severely undermine good governance practices.

In three days of hearings in the Homeland Security Committee, four panel members-Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi of California, Democratic Caucus Chairman Martin Frost of Texas, Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut-have made the proposal one of their favorite targets.

Today, James offered the most spirited defense of the plan to date. "The creation of the Department of Homeland Security is not an effort in union busting," she said. "The flexibility the president envisions for the new department is aimed at one result and one result only: ensuring the security of our homeland."

The civil service provision was not the only Democratic target at today's hearing. They also worried that the new department's focus on domestic security would undermine the non-security functions of the programs that would be transferred to it, such as the Coast Guard.

In one exchange, Menendez asked Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson if they would "point to the language" in the bill that would ensure that "non-security missions are preserved."

When no one replied, Menendez said the administration officials do not "have the answer because [they] don't have the language."

Frost, citing a recent Congressional Budget Office estimate of the plan's cost, added, "There is a concern that when the administration begins looking for that $3 billion, they will look at the non-security functions of these programs."

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, who chairs the special committee, said the panel remains on track for a Friday markup and that he would likely circulate a chairman's mark by Thursday morning. "We would expect-Wednesday evening, night, Thursday morning-to make available a chairman's mark," Armey said. He said he was preparing for a lengthy Friday markup, quipping, "I would predict we would be done at 10 a.m.-Saturday morning."