DHS Seen as ‘Starting Point’ for Reforms

The White House’s recent budget proposal describes the special personnel provisions of the Department of Homeland Security as a “starting point for managerial flexibility” to be applied elsewhere in government. The budget document terms a “start well worth continuing” the provisions affecting DHS, which include special hiring, pay, and other authorities; it does not measure the broadened authority to exclude unions from the agency, which was the focus of a contentious debate last year in creating the department. “The success in obtaining managerial flexibility for the new Department stands in contrast to the inaction of the Congress on other common sense management proposals the President submitted more than a year ago,” the budget says. “If nothing else, the debate surrounding the creation of DHS reinforced the need for broad management reform for the entire executive branch.” The potential precedent being set by the special authorities at DHS was a major concern of employee organizations and some members of Congress who worked to limit those authorities.