DHS agency urged to continue retention bonus program
Nominee to become the department’s next management chief told lawmakers he will look into the issue.
Lawmakers and labor union officials this week pushed Homeland Security Department officials to rethink a recent decision to eliminate a retention bonus program for federal police and investigators who help guard government facilities.
Retention bonuses would help the DHS' Federal Protective Service recruit and retain employees, said Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, at the confirmation hearing for Paul Schneider, nominated to become the department's undersecretary for management.
FPS officials announced recently that they plan to end the program next year in addressing budget shortfalls. The decision will affect about 700 GS-4 through GS-12 employees.
"I'm wondering if human capital [was] factored into this decision," Akaka said.
Schneider said he would look into the matter.
Union officials representing FPS employees recently have taken to Capitol Hill to try to save the bonus program, and have visited Democrats and Republicans on homeland security and appropriations committees. Still, sources familiar with the discussions say, it is likely that the termination will move forward.
Absent of any last-minute change, FPS investigators and officers will lose in January what, since the bonus program's inception in 2002, has collectively amounted to about $3 million per fiscal year. So union officials also took to local airwaves to voice their grievances.
Two union representatives spoke Friday morning on an American Federation of Government Employees radio talk show, harshly criticizing Julie Myers, the assistant secretary of DHS' Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, within which FPS resides.
"The agency has admitted retention pay has worked" in keeping officers and investigators with the agency, said David Wright, president of AFGE Local 981, which represents hundreds of FPS workers. "ICE headquarters wants our officers to leave" and expects that attrition will help drive down costs to help meet pressing budget demands, he said.
The agency for months has been plagued with budget problems. On Friday's radio show, Wright and Cynthia Kohlmeier-Parker, president of AFGE's National Council of ICE Locals 118, agreed the protective service faces a shortfall of $60 million.
The agency also put forward voluntary early retirement packages in August, but after too few workers accepted, officials recently offered the incentives again, sources said. Agency sources also said that FPS is no longer expecting to hire entry-level officers and investigators, and that it will seek to promote from within when openings become available.
DHS representatives did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.