Senate Bill Could Be More Protective

While most of the attention to the Homeland Security Department proposal so far has focused on the House, Senate committees are currently drafting their own versions of the plan, with a vote on the Senate floor possible next week. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., chairman of the main panel handling civil service matters, Governmental Affairs, is backing a measure that would in general would preserve current employee rights to collective bargaining unless the individual’s job duties are “materially changed” after the transfer, the new duties are “directly related to the investigation of terrorism” and union representation would have a “substantial adverse effect on national security.”