What could be more important than protecting the United States from terrorism? Preserving the jobs of unionized federal government workers of course.
The bill that would establish a Department of Homeland Security also contains a sentence that would give the executive branch more authority to fire workers at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Customs Service and 20 other federal agencies currently planned to be part of that department.
Democrats are already bristling at such language. The Post quotes a spokesman for House Democratic Whip Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) saying,
It’s a huge issue for the Democrats because it’s a huge issue for working families. Public employees were the first responders on September 11th, and they deserve the security of keeping their civil service positions. This is 170,000 people who don’t know if their job is going to be protected.
Thank goodness House Democrats have their priorities straight. Fighting terrorism should never overshadow the important mission of protecting government employees.
Source:
Bush to Ask Workers for Flexibility on Homeland Security. Ellen Nakashma and Bill Miller, Washington Post, July, 10, 2002.