Bush pushes hard for flexibility in new department

President Bush Friday took to the bully pulpit in opposition to worker provisions in the Senate homeland security department bill, arguing the government needs wartime flexibility toward the agency's employees.

Bush aides argued that combining other agencies into the new department would be impossible without such flexibility.

"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," Bush said in remarks at the White House. "When we face unprecedented threats, like we're facing, we cannot have business as usual."

Looking on was Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., whose bill the president was criticizing, as well as a handful of other House and Senate lawmakers from both parties.

Bush said he rejects "as strongly as I can state it" assertions that he is trying to undermine basic worker rights, asserting that workers would retain "whistleblower protection, collective bargaining rights and protection against unlawful discrimination."

The White House released a chart showing that the human resource systems of the various agencies that will be incorporated into the Homeland Security Department vary extensively. This is particularly true of the Transportation Department's new Transportation Security Agency, which has substantially different pay, benefits, hiring, appointment and performance management practices compared with the other agencies, according to the chart.

"If we don't have flexibility, it would be impossible to manage this mess," said Office of Personnel Management Director Kay James, who briefed reporters at the White House. James, a Bush appointee, pledged to meet with union officials to "design" the agency, but only after the bill is passed. She said the bill should stipulate that unions "will have a place at the table."

Lieberman later held a news conference to draw attention to the similarities between the White House plan and the bill approved Thursday by the Governmental Affairs Committee. Lieberman said his bill would create a Homeland Security Department that includes every one of the federal agencies and offices that Bush suggested.

Further, the White House bill is "based on legislation that Lieberman proposed way back in October," said a Lieberman spokeswoman. She added that the Senate bill upholds the managerial and personnel flexibility in current law.

Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget Friday released a Statement of Administration Policy expressing strong support for passage of the House homeland security bill, while nevertheless raising several concerns. The SAP also notes that, because funding in the recently passed supplemental was not provided sooner, the TSA's ability to meet current law deadlines "has been severely undermined."