Word: hsd
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...limited to moving vans and packing boxes, they will signal the largest reorganization of federal agencies since the 1947 merger of the War and Navy departments, which formed the Defense Department, and the first major restructuring since 1977, when the Energy Department first came on the scene. The HSD would employ 170,000 people, culled primarily from the staff of 22 agencies, including the Secret Service, Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Transportation Security Authority and INS. Duties of the new agency will include coordinating counter-terrorism measures as well as preemptive defense. The four divisions: border and transportation security; emergency preparedness...
...insistence by the President and his Republican allies that he should have the power to hire, fire and discipline any staff member for any reason - because, he reasoned, the sensitivity of this department's mission demanded fast action. Democrats, along with union leaders, argued the employees of HSD should be given the same rights - reviews, protections - as any other federal employees...
...President is concerned about a bundle of complex (some say utterly arcane) labor practices that lie, while not exactly at the heart of the HSD legislation, at least in its nearby outskirts. The key to the disagreements? Fear of party-based favoritism and reprisals...
...changes: Bush wants the power to re-shape and re-organize job clusters within the HSD. Union leaders worry this freedom could jeopardize pay scales and job security...
...There are two ways to read the White House's insistence: Option one: Bush is legitimately concerned about streamlining efforts to make the HSD a lean, mean security machine. Option two: The White House and GOP leaders are terrified by the prospect of thousands more unionized workers in Washington - most of whom would, out of necessity, vote Democratic. So where does the true line of reasoning lie? Probably somewhere right down the middle...