House Democrats push Homeland Security reorganization bill

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee introduced a bill late Thursday that would affect the Homeland Security Department's plans to reorganize.

The legislation would prevent Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff from limiting the Federal Emergency Management Agency's responsibilities as proposed in his July "second stage review." The bill also recommends that Chertoff merge the department's border enforcement and inspection bureaus, which are slated to remain separate under his restructuring plan.

Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., introduced the bill as stand-alone legislation. Its fate remains unclear, however, as Democrats introduced several stand-alone bills under former ranking member Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, that the committee never acted on.

"This bill provides guidance and direction to many of the administration's ill-defined plans for departmental reorganization," said Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science and Technology. "We know full-well that DHS needs structural overhaul. It has become clear that it will be up to Congress--and our committee in particular--to make sure it's done right. That is why this legislation is so critical."

The Democrats' measure would stop Chertoff from splitting off FEMA's preparedness operations and folding them into a new Preparedness Directorate. The secretary's plan would leave FEMA to focus on its traditional response and recovery mission.

"We have seen how American lives are saved or lost depending on how well FEMA is able to prepare for disasters," Thompson said. "It would be foolish to consider stripping this crucial agency of its preparedness mission even after seeing what happened during Hurricane Katrina."

The legislation would keep FEMA intact as part of a "strong Directorate of Preparedness and Response," and would require the agency to have a director and deputy director with extensive backgrounds in emergency or disaster-related management. The deputy director would have to be a career federal employee.

The bill "expresses the sense of Congress" that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection bureaus should be merged "in order to eliminate inefficiencies and a lack of coordination created by these two agencies' separation."

The Democrats also outlined responsibilities for the department's new chief intelligence officer, chief medical officer, and assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications. Their measure grants the chief privacy officer the power to access all records for an investigation, subpoena documents from the private sector and obtain sworn testimony.

The bill would strengthen whistleblower protections by allowing DHS employees, contractors and subcontractors, and employees "of other companies working in homeland security areas," to file complaints at the Labor Department if they feel they are retaliated against for reporting "a national security concern."

If Labor fails to act on a complaint within six months, protected employees would be able to take their case to district court and would be entitled to such reinstatement, back pay, legal fees and punitive damages. Retaliation against whistleblowers would become a crime punishable by 10 years in prison.