Madam Chairman, I am pleased to join you in welcoming Dr. Michael Jackson, the President's nominee to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. This is one of the most challenging positions in the government.

I understand that Secretary Chertoff, who was sworn in two weeks ago, has already begun a top-to-bottom review of the Department, and I want to say that I welcome this review.

As we all know, the Department was cobbled together from 22 existing government entities with new functions added. DHS is a work in progress, and I agree that now is a good time to assess whether or not some areas need changing.

To bring together these disparate functions, Congress authorized the Department and the Office of Personnel Management to create a new personnel system, which now finalized, represents a radical departure from the existing federal civil service system.

Most Americans are not aware of this particular aspect. And, those who are, might think of it as one of those inside-the-Beltway issues of no real consequence.

They are wrong.

The first line in our national defense is our public servants: in or out of uniform. We must ensure that our national security workforce has the right tools, the right incentives, and a supportive working environment necessary to accomplish their mission.

I believe you appreciate this, Dr. Jackson. But as you know, you will be judged by your deeds.

I am hearing from federal workers in Hawaii and throughout the nation that the DHS personnel regulations lack the support of employees. Moreover, employee unions have filed suit to prevent the implementation of these regulations, and even if the suit fails, it is indicative of a severely strained labor-management environment.

Dr. Jackson, you and Secretary Chertoff have the opportunity to foster a more positive environment so that the Department of Homeland Security can meet its mission of making America more safe.

There are several actions that you can take to make this happen:

• Ensure that the DHS internal labor relations and mandatory removal panels include members recommended by employees;
• Reinstate the current authority of the Merit Systems Protection Board to mitigate penalties;
• Issue more detailed regulations in the Federal Register on the pay for performance system; and
• Provide greater opportunities for employees and their union representatives to be involved in agency decision-making

In addition, it is essential to ensure strong whistleblower protections for all federal workers, especially national security employees.

Last week, a bipartisan group of Senators from this Committee joined Senator Collins and I to reintroduce legislation to strengthen whistleblower protections for federal workers. As you know from your role in helping to establish the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), federal baggage screeners do not have full whistleblower rights. This Committee supported extending full whistleblower rights to all DHS employees during our markup of the DHS bill in 2002. Unfortunately, the final legislation did not reflect this intent.

I ask you to consider whistleblowing as an effective tool for management, not a hindrance, and I urge you to extend whistleblower protection to all DHS employees. Such action will have an immediate impact on employee morale and will help the Department uncover mismanagement and security lapses. This is what leadership is all about -- being able to focus on the goal and not be dragged down by the details.

It is also essential that employees have adequate training on the implementation of the new human resources system, particularly on the performance management system. We often find that in tight fiscal years, training budgets are routinely cut or used to pay for other agency priorities. I hope you will be committed to ensuring a strong and robust training program for the Department.

I fear the Administration has been too focused on the details, wasting time, expending political capital, hurting the morale of the very civil service workforce whose duty is to make America safe.

Reports that other federal agencies, such as the Department of Defense, paid more bonuses to senior political appointees than career Senior Executives damages morale and heightens the apprehension of everyone serving in the federal workforce. I hope this has not happened in DHS. Employees should be treated fairly and equitably.

Dr. Jackson, your first challenge will be to convince the men and women who work for you that that is the case at DHS.

Your second challenge will be to provide leadership to the DHS workforce, not just a new set of personnel regulations.

As I mentioned earlier, employees must have the right tools, the right incentives, and the right environment to accomplish their mission.

Again, I welcome you to the Committee, and I welcome your family, and I want to thank them for their sacrifice for their country in supporting you for this position. And, I hope they will be able to join you in a visit to my state of Hawaii sooner rather than later.