Cord Byrd: “the President wants the Congress to grant the administration the authority to write its own civil service system…”

“the President wants the Congress to grant the administration the authority to write its own civil service system, regardless of what has been written in current law, that would apply only to Federal workers within a new Department of Homeland Security. As I have expressed before on this floor, I am concerned that these changes mask the administration's larger hidden agenda, an agenda that would have the Federal Government function more like a big corporation. We all certainly ought to be concerned about that idea, given our recent experience with the inner workings of big corporations. I come, Mr. President, from the coalfields of southern West Virginia, not from a corporate boardroom. So I approach this with a different perspective than the administration, quite obviously. Before I would ever vote to approve a homeland security measure, I would want to know more about the working conditions of its prospective employees. Will the employees who currently enjoy collective bargaining rights continue to enjoy those same rights at the new Department? Will these employees have complete whistleblower protections? Before I vote to approve a homeland security measure, I want to know about the pay system. How will the payroll systems and personnel systems be merged into the new Department? How would the special pay rates, already in existence at the separate agencies, coordinate or be replaced by a pay system if one were to be implemented?”