"In Bush Budget, Homeland Security Issues Drive Employment Growth"

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

In Bush Budget, Homeland Security Issues Drive Employment Growth
By Stephen Barr
The Washington (DC) Post 


If your job is to chase bad guys and throw them in jail, the president's
budget plan has good career news for you -- increased opportunities for
promotion and for new assignments. 

Employment at the Justice Department in fiscal 2006 would be 18 percent more
than it was in 2004, according to the budget plan that President Bush sent
Congress yesterday. Employment at the Department of Homeland Security would
be 6 percent higher. 
 
The projected multiyear workforce increases at the two departments reflect,
to a large degree, the homeland security priorities of the White House and
the Congress. The focus on homeland security, a response to the 9/11
terrorist attacks, also has pushed up overall federal employment, according
to the budget. 

Based on budget data, the number of full-time employees would be 8 percent
higher in fiscal 2006 than when the president took office. In fiscal 2006,
which begins Oct. 1, the executive branch, excluding the Postal Service,
would have 1,876,785 employees, the budget projects. 

Bush's new budget shows growth in federal employment of 6.9 percent for the
2002 to 2006 period. Most of that growth is taking place at the
Transportation Security Administration and other agencies involved in
homeland security. 

The proposed budget released yesterday shows the Justice Department growing
by 18,100 full-time employees between fiscal 2004 and 2006. Most of the
staff increase would be at the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service. 

Under the budget, the Department of Homeland Security would have 8,500 more
employees in fiscal 2006 than it had in 2004. Many of those jobs would go
for more Customs and Border Protection officers, Border Patrol agents and
TSA screeners. (The budget also requests $53 million for a new Homeland
Security personnel system; most of the money would go for technology to
replace and consolidate 140 personnel information systems.) 

The budget shows the Commerce Department adding 4,400 workers from 2004 to
2006, mostly at the Census Bureau and the Patent and Trademark Office. The
Health and Human Services Department, meanwhile, picks up more than 2,800
employees, and the Social Security Administration adds 1,700 employees. Many
of them would administer the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, which
starts in 2006, the budget says. 

HHS also would hire workers for the Indian Health Service, the Food and Drug
Administration and the National Institutes of Health, according to the
budget forecast. 

The budget shows the State Department adding more than 600 staff members
between fiscal 2004 and 2006. Hiring would be for extra security personnel,
consular personnel to handle new visa requirements and employees to serve in
Iraq, Sudan and Libya, the budget said. 

Some agencies are seeing no increases in their workforces or slight
reductions. Between fiscal 2004 and 2006, the budget shows staffing levels
decreasing at the Departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development,
Labor, Transportation and Treasury. 

Employment growth, of course, requires Congress to provide the money to
support increased payrolls and benefits. Congress also may step up hiring in
some areas. Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Homeland
Security Committee, noted that Congress has authorized adding 2,000 Border
Patrol agents in 2006, while the president's budget seeks only 210 extra
positions. 

Budget tables reflect the overall growth in government, particularly
increasing payroll and retirement costs. The budget says executive branch
payrolls will require $129.4 billion in fiscal 2006, an 8.9 percent increase
from 2004. 

Annuity payments for federal retirees are projected to reach $60 billion in
fiscal 2006, a 12 percent increase from 2004. Retiree health benefits would
cost $8.4 billion in 2006, a jump of 14.7 percent from two years earlier,
according to the budget. 

Contrary to the concerns of some employee groups, the budget does not
propose reductions in retirement or health insurance benefits.


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