Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2007
TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - June 14, 2006)
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the ranking member for yielding to me.
Mr. Chairman, I planned to offer an amendment to H.R. 5576 to limit the use of funds within the act to prevent the contracting out of jobs of the postal police officers.
Based on a security assessment that predates either the anthrax attacks of 2001 or 9/11, the Postal Service is proceeding with an ill-conceived plan to decrease the number of professional law enforcement personnel at a number of postal facilities nationwide. In lieu of offering an amendment, the Chairman of Government Reform has agreed to write a joint letter to the Postmaster General outlining our concerns regarding the contracting out of the postal police officers.
Further, the letter will ask the Postal Service to base its security decisions on more recent assessments and to put on hold any plans for cuts or redeployments until updated threat assessments are complete.
Nearly 900 men and women serve as postal police officers. Postal police are fully trained, uniformed law enforcement personnel who have full arrest authority. They ensure a safe environment at postal facilities located in major metropolitan areas that are considered high risk. They are the first responders on the scene of any crime that occurs at postal facilities.
Since 9/11, the Federal Government has moved aggressively to replace contract security personnel with full-time Federal employees to appropriately address terrorist threats. Seeking to protect America from terrorist threats by keeping in-house highly trained law enforcement personnel is sound policy, especially given that the Postal Service is an attractive target for a terrorist attack and given the recent anthrax attacks it endured.
I feel strongly that contracting out the Postal Service police officers with private sector personnel with the training or arrest authority or ability to carry weapons puts constituents, including postal employees and patrons of postal facilities to move in the opposite direction as the war on terror continues.
In short, I believe that the Postal Service's plan is pennywise and pound foolish. I want to thank the ranking member of the Transportation Subcommittee for yielding me this time. I also want to thank the chairman of the Committee on Government Reform for his time and commitment to keeping the highest level of security at postal facilities and helping to ensure the safety and security of not only all of the postal facilities and its employees but the American public and its mail at large.
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