-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 9, 2007 8:45:36 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Top Homeland Security Posts Go Begging (Demand for Corrupt
Pols Exceeds Supply?)
Job Vacancies At DHS Said To Hurt U.S. Preparedness
A Fourth of Top Positions Not Filled, Report Says
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post, July 9, 2007; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/
AR2007070801201.html?hpid=topnews
The Bush administration has failed to fill roughly a quarter of the
top leadership posts at the Department of Homeland Security,
creating a "gaping hole" in the nation's preparedness for a
terrorist attack or other threat, according to a congressional
report to be released today.
As of May 1, Homeland Security had 138 vacancies among its top 575
positions, with the greatest voids reported in its policy, legal
and intelligence sections, as well as in immigration agencies, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard. The vacant
slots include presidential, senior executive and other high-level
appointments, according to the report by the majority staff of the
House Homeland Security Committee.
A DHS spokesman challenged the report's tally, saying that it is
skewed by a sudden expansion this spring in the number of top
management jobs. Before then, only 12 percent of positions were
unfilled in a department that has always been thinly staffed at
headquarters, spokesman Russ Knocke said.
The findings have stoked fresh concern among some in Congress about
the four-year-old department's progress in overcoming management
problems, dating to its troubled 2003 creation from 22 components.
The DHS was reorganized in 2005 by its current secretary, Michael
Chertoff. But it suffered a breakdown at multiple levels in
responding to Hurricane Katrina that August, which prompted a new
congressional overhaul.
"One of the continuing problems appears to be the over
politicization of the top rank of Department management," concludes
the report by the committee, chaired by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-
Miss.). "This could lead to heightened vulnerability to terrorist
attack."
In an interview, Thompson said that vacancies have weakened morale
and reflect an over-reliance on contractors. He also called the
report a warning "that we can expect more vacancies to occur than
what we have been accustomed to" at the close of the
administration, when many top personnel will leave their posts.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), ranking Republican on the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee, agreed that the
inability to fill jobs is creating problems within DHS offices.
While walking in his district yesterday, Davis said, he met
constituents employed at an immigration agency who described lower
morale because of the vacancies.
The DHS has one of the largest rosters of senior political
appointees in the federal government, in part because of how it was
created. The DHS says it has never had more than 220 senior
political appointees, although the Office of Personnel Management
told Congress of more than 360 in 2004, National Journal reported
last month.
Of the 138 vacant positions, the DHS provided no explanation for
70, according to the House report. Seven others had tentative or
pending appointees and 60 were under recruitment.
The department currently has 130 vacancies at senior levels, Knocke
said, with 92 now in the process of recruitment.
A major focus of the current DHS leadership, Knocke said, is
preparing a competent bench of managers by 2009, when a new
presidential administration will come into power. Department
officials said they have removed officials whose qualifications and
political backgrounds were called into question in favor of more
seasoned personnel.
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