GovernmentExecutive.com

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., vowed Tuesday in a speech before members of the National Treasury Employees Union to fight the Bush administration on behalf of federal workers.

"Repeatedly, the Bush administration has failed to treat federal employees with respect and dignity and that has got to stop," Lieberman, a contender for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, told several hundred NTEU members. "I'm going to be watching...this administration closely, and speaking out wherever and whenever its anti-union bias rears its ugly head."

The senator said he wouldn't hesitate to filibuster, or delay a vote indefinitely by speaking continuously on the Senate floor, to stop the administration [from stepping on employee rights] and protecting federal workers. "I know if the rules are fair and the playing ground is level, that public servants will perform at the highest level," Lieberman said.

The event was part of NTEU's annual legislative conference.

Congress gave administration officials broad authority to craft civil service rules when it created the new Homeland Security Department last November. The department merged 22 federal agencies and more than 170,000 federal employees. Now HSD officials are able to design new rules for hiring, pay, promotions, job classification, collective bargaining, performance appraisals, disciplinary procedures and firing, though the law also requires that any changes be made in consultation with employee organizations, labor unions and managers associations.

Lieberman, who is ranking member of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, led a coalition of lawmakers who opposed giving personnel flexibilities to department officials. NTEU President Colleen Kelley and leaders of other unions representing federal employees argued that reducing civil service protections would lead to politicization of the new Homeland Security Department.

"This administration partisanly and, I think, stubbornly, insisted on fighting over civil service issues," Lieberman said. "We were right on that debate and the administration was wrong. You'd think that some of my colleagues forgot that Osama bin Laden was the enemy and thought that Colleen Kelley was the enemy," Lieberman said, referring to the NTEU president and drawing applause from the audience.

During the height of that debate, President Bush said civil service flexibilities are necessary to move employees and resources around quickly. "The enemy moves quickly and America must move quickly," Bush said last November. "We cannot have bureaucratic rules preventing this president and future presidents from meeting the needs of the American people."

Lieberman said he would fight for military-civilian pay parity, called for more money to hire border patrol agents in fiscal 2004 and promised to oppose what he described as "efforts to wantonly contract out federal services en masse." The Bush administration has proposed a new competitive sourcing plan that could lead to the outsourcing of 425,000 federal jobs.

"When you work for the U.S. government, it is not just another job, it is an act of public service, you are fulfilling constitutional and regulatory responsibilities," Lieberman said. "You can't take those responsibilities and put them in a contract and say, 'Get it done as cheaply as you can.'"

In defense of the proposal, Office of Management and Budget officials have said repeatedly that agencies should be able to take advantage of "the best solutions at the best price."

COMMENTS

• I think that many in Congress have lost sight of the principals that America was founded on - protection of the God-given right for the pursuit of property, not the entitlement to it. Many have fallen into this Taggart-esque view of America as the land of opportunity without effort, reward without merit. After all, that is what many unions of this day represent, showing regard for tenure and mediocrity rather than innovation and hard work. Personally, as a government employee, I am ashamed to be part of a union, one which I refuse to pay dues for, and one which, despite that, claims to represent my best interests. Lieberman argues that the President's moves with civilian workers jobs threatens to turn the entire thing political - what organization is more political and bureaucratic than a union? Further, Lieberman argues that "[he] know[s] if the rules are fair and the playing ground is level, that public servants will perform at the highest level." What Mr. Lieberman does not mention is that unions make the playing field terribly un-level when it comes to inter-personnel relations. Does a college kid who comes up with a completely new design for a submarine antenna stack that costs half the amount of money to produce, works over twice the range, and can be easily back-fitted onto current submarines deserve more money than some random Joe who has been doing the minimum amount of work necessary for the past 30 years? Of course he does, but this completely socialist government policy completely undermines that very idea that this great country of ours was founded upon. I also find it ironic that Mr. Lieberman comes from the richest state in the union. Where does his expertise on the plight of the average government worker come from? I do have the utmost respect for the senator, and have found many of his arguments in the past to be well presented and articulated, if not downright convincing. But this entire issue of civilian-military parity and the plight of the government worker is really too much - when did this Democrat become a socialist? I would ask him to remember what this country grants us - the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. I have the freedom to join the military if I want to - and you had better believe that I would want a larger pay raise for running across the desert engaging in combat - without our soldiers, we have no freedom. Without incentives (such as getting ahead in life), all we have left is the right to life - not a bad thing, but what is life without the motivation to work harder and the freedom to make something out of that life? Anonymous Posted March 24, 2003 3:37 PM
• The anti-union onslaught of the Bush administration seems lost in the rush to war. Articles such as this are few and far between. President Bush continually implies through his administrations' actions, and that of the anti-union Customs management, that Customs Inspectors and C.E.O's are akin to the Taliban. We are not. We are patriots foremost and loyal American citizen taxpayers who have rights. Since "elected", the President and his Customs managers have been sytematically eroding union workers' rights in Customs, and daily, attempting to dismantle their contract or National Agreement. We union members of NTEU are American patriots and not the enemy. We should have a say in our own Title V Rights. Customs management has run rough-shod over NTEU members, as if we were prisoners of war in Guantanamo Bay. Mr.Ridge et.al, parrot whatever "flexibility" phrase the speechwriters come up with.They all continually spout that they will "work with the federal employee unions" re: the coming changes in the Homeland security Dept. The track record of this administration belies those phoney platitudes. Anonymous Posted March 24, 2003 3:35 PM