Leaders on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee have introduced legislation to reform DHS’s Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for providing security for 9,000 federal buildings.
Introduced by committee chair Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine and management subcommittee chair Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii and ranking member George Voinovich, R-Ohio, the bill would codify numerous GAO recommendations put forward in recent years to improve the agency and how it manages and trains its 1,200 fulltime employees and 15,000 contract guards.
In addition to formally authorizing the FPS for the first time, the bill would provide the resources needed to hire an additional 500 full time employees over the next four years.
It would also require FPS to maintain testing programs to assess the training of guards, security of federal facilities, and to establish procedures for retraining or terminating ineffective guards; require DHS to establish performance-based standards for checkpoint detection technologies for explosives and other threats at federal facilities; allow FPS officers to carry firearms off-duty; and support avenues of appeal if a building tenant believes security measures unduly inhibit public access.
