Mike Thompson: “Let me address it first, if I may. I don't know whether you would call it a replacement, total replacement, or an…”

“Let me address it first, if I may. I don't know whether you would call it a replacement, total replacement, or an addition to. The significant thing, in answer to the Senator's question, under any definition it is a diminution of the President's authority from existing law. It is a diminution in this way: Under existing law, the President can make a determination that an agency or a subdivision of an agency is primarily involved in intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work, and he can set aside the collective bargaining agreement. Under the Nelson amendment, there is an additional requirement for the President. He must also go through the requirement of determining the mission and responsibility of the agency materially changed. If you have a situation where a person was, in times past, doing a certain thing, and he is going to be brought into the new agency--and perhaps he is doing pretty much the same job; his job has not changed that much. What has changed is the rest of the world. September 11 changed it. Our heightened requirement in security changed. That whole job where the President has not exercised his authority in times past might take on a different dimension, although he is doing the same job. In the first place, the President might not be able to make this finding. In the second instance, he would be setting himself up for another hurdle, for someone to challenge him in court.”