Improving America's Security Act of 2007

IMPROVING AMERICA'S SECURITY ACT OF 2007 -- (Senate - March 07, 2007)

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, later today, the Senate will vote on the amendment I have offered with a number of my colleagues--Senator Stevens, Senator Warner, Senator Coleman, Senator Sununu, and Senator Voinovich--that would provide certain employment rights for the Transportation Security Administration's employees.

Throughout our committee's work on homeland security, it has become clear the ability to respond quickly and effectively to changing conditions, to emerging threats, to new intelligence, to impending crises is essential. From the intelligence community to our first responders, the key to an effective response is flexibility--putting assets and, more importantly, personnel where they are needed when they are needed with a minimum of bureaucracy.

My questions about giving TSA employees the right to collectively bargain center around whether this right would hamper flexibility at a critical time. I have long been a supporter of Federal employees throughout my time in the Senate. I have worked in the public sector virtually my entire life, and I know how hard individuals at all levels of Government work to provide services to protect us and to serve us.

It is my hope we can forge a compromise that preserves the flexibility--we have learned in classified briefings from Kip Hawley, the head of TSA--that is needed while at the same time recognizing that TSA employees deserve more employment rights. These employees are working hard every day to protect us. We should protect them.

The TSA is charged with a great responsibility. In order to accomplish its critical national security mission, the Aviation Transportation Security Act provided the TSA Administrator with workforce flexibilities. These flexibilities allow the TSA Administrator to shift resources and to implement new procedures daily, in some cases hourly, in response to emergencies, canceled flights, and changing circumstances. This authority enables TSA to make the best and fullest use of its highly trained and dedicated workforce.

This is not just theoretical. We have already seen the benefits of this authority and this flexibility. In both the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the thwarted airline bombing plot in Great Britain last year, TSA moved quickly to change the nature of its employees' work--and even the location of that work--in response.

Last December, when blizzards hit the Denver area and many local TSOs were unable to get to the airport, TSA acted quickly, flying in volunteer TSOs from Las Vegas to cover the shifts, and covering the Las Vegas shifts with officers who were transferred temporarily from Salt Lake City. Without this ability to deploy needed personnel where they were needed, on a moment's notice, the Denver airport would have been critically understaffed while hundreds, perhaps thousands, of travelers were stranded. This flexibility is essential.

An even better example was the work that was done in the aftermath of the thwarted airline bombing plot last summer, where TSA, overnight, had to retrain its employees, had to deploy them differently, and was able to do so because of the flexibility that is in the current law.

The legislation before the Senate is designed to implement the unfulfilled recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Many of the recommendations were enacted in 2004 as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act Senator Lieberman and I authored and worked so hard on. But the language concerning TSA employees' bargaining rights is an issue that was not addressed in this report. You can read this report, as I have, from cover to cover--I think it is 567 pages--and you will not find a discussion of collective bargaining rights for TSA employees. So this is not a recommendation that was included in the 9/11 Commission's report.

Before we so drastically change the TSA personnel system, we must ensure we do not interfere with TSA's ability to carry out its mission. I want to make clear that we should, however, make some changes in the system now. We have had enough experience with TSA over the past few years that there are a number of things that are obvious.

First, we should bring TSA employees under the Whistleblower Protections Act which safeguards the rights of whistleblowers throughout the Federal Government. There is no reason to deny TSA employees that protection. My amendment would provide for that coverage.

Second, we should make very clear that TSA members do have the right to join a union. That is a different issue from collective bargaining. Indeed, many TSA employees have chosen to join the union because then they have the right to representation by the union if there is a disciplinary action. So we should make that clear.

Third, we should give TSA employees the right to an independent appeal of disciplinary actions, of adverse employment actions such as demotions or firings, and have that appeal heard by an independent agency, the Merit Systems Protection Board. It is this board that sits in judgment of appeals filed by other Federal employees, and I see no reason why the TSA employees should not have those same rights.

Fourth, the amendment includes a provision codifying the pay-for-performance system that TSA has used very successfully to retain and recruit good employees.

Finally, the amendment we are offering provides for TSA, in a year's time, to come back to us with a report on whether other changes are needed in the personnel system.

We have also tasked GAO with performing that duty. Now, that is important because we are still learning about TSA. As I said, I think we can make these significant changes now, but we need more time and study and consideration before going further, and that is why I have recommended that we have this report back.

The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's subcommittee which has jurisdiction over civil service issues just this week held its first hearing to look at this issue. So there is a lot of work that still needs to be done, but I think we can proceed now to provide these important protections.

As we strive to protect our Nation and our people without diminishing civil liberties, we must do all we can to build a strong homeland security structure that upholds the rights of homeland security personnel. I believe we can provide TSA employees with important protections enjoyed by other Federal employees, such as the right to appeal adverse employment actions to
the Merit Systems Protection Board and the statutory right to whistleblower protections, without disrupting TSA's established and proven personnel system. That personnel system was described in great detail to us in a classified briefing session as well as an open hearing as being necessary to accomplish the goals of the agency. So my amendment would give these rights to TSA employees.

I have been working to try to achieve a middle ground between those who believe there should be no employment rights for TSA employees and those who believe we should allow them to engage in full collective bargaining. That is what my amendment attempts to do, is to chart that middle ground, to provide significant additional protections and rights to TSA employees without burdening a system that is working effectively.

I urge my colleagues to support the amendment when we vote on it later today.

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