Homeland Security cuts hours for some inspectors

[icymist]

Saturday, May 22, 2004

Homeland Security cuts hours for some inspectors

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

Hours have been slashed for dozens of U.S. immigration inspectors guarding airports and the border with Canada, with some potentially losing their jobs.

The reductions announced yesterday outraged and puzzled the president of the union local representing the workers.

"They're not even getting a straight reason (why) they're being cut back or terminated," said Jerry Emory of the American Federation of Government Employees.

To read more, click on the following

[Spazito]

1. Unbelievable!

On the one hand, US admin is warning about terrorist attacks yet they reduce Homeland Security.

[truthisfreedom]

2. how else can rove plan for the election?

[salin]

3. but hey... we need more tax cuts - and more spending in Iraq!

screw national security ala teambush

[kodi]

4. why does the Dept of Homeland Security hate America?

.

[mainer]

5. A case of LIHOP again?

planning for the "inevitable" terrorist attack?

[htuttle]

6. Sept. 11 Could Not Have Been Prevented Without Accruing a Lot of Overtime

http://www.theonion.com/opinion/index.php?issue=4017

By Condoleezza Rice

(snip)
According to federal law, government employees must be paid time-and-a-half for any work hours beyond 40 and double-time on weekends. Ladies and gentlemen, preventing Sept. 11 would have required hundreds of thousands of unbudgeted overtime hours and, in several cases, overtime plus compensatory paid vacation. Again, may I address the family members of Sept. 11 victims: That tragic day changed us all, but you paid the highest price.

(snip)

The world was a different place before the day of those horrific attacks. Due to tragic budget constraints before Sept. 11, it was impossible to authorize unlimited overtime pay to defend our country from international and domestic threats. Our nation was in the midst of a fiscal crisis and operating under massive jobs-and-growth tax-cut measures. Turning back the hands of time is impossible, just as it would have been impossible to find money to cover thousands of hours of intelligence-agency overtime. Truly, the bottom line weighed heavy on our hearts and minds.

Predicting what happened on Sept. 11 would have necessitated the hiring of numerous new employees—many of them highly paid specialists in such esoteric fields as Islamic history and Middle Eastern languages.

But it was not simply a matter of incurring additional labor costs. Had we been able to allocate sufficient funds for overtime pay, we would have faced a second significant obstacle. In retrospect, I see it as a tragic coincidence that the dramatic increase in terrorist chatter and threat information coincided with the arrival of the summer, when keeping our vast offices up and running beyond the eight-hour workday would have necessitated substantial central-cooling expenditures.

(more)

[mulethree]

9. ha ha ha not the labor costs, it was the A/C bill! n/t

[jackstraw45]

7. Just like when they cut fudning for TSA....

a year after 9/11...

Wonder why you have super long lines at airports?

Cuts in funding for Homeland Security.

This misadministration is SUCH a f-ing SHAM on national security.

HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars wasted in Iraq and they cut security at our borders making us less safe.

How HARD is it for the other 50% to see this?

[mulethree]

8. Bush reminding big business how DHS de-unionized

You consolidate big pieces of the government and declare their job to be National Security and presto! no collective bargaining requirements!

And the cheap-labor proponents go Oooh! Aaah!