Questions about Existing Rights Raised

While alternative personnel policies were relatively easy to install at TSA because the agency was starting from scratch, applying such ideas in other agencies that would be brought into the Homeland Security department could be a different matter. Employees in those agencies already have various protections guaranteed by civil service law and, in some cases, by labor-management contracts. For example, during a recent House debate on a bill to break the Immigration and Naturalization Service into separate law enforcement and naturalization agencies, an amendment to exempt employees from the newly structured agencies from the laws governing federal employee job protections and appeal rights was soundly defeated after opposition from both parties.