WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- President Bush's new budget proposes cuts to the Federal Protective Service, a police force within the Department of Homeland Security that guards U.S. government buildings, a move labor unions say would be "the last nail in the coffin" of the agency, whose functions have been progressively outsourced to private contractors.
Officials defend the changes as improving efficiency without sacrificing security, and point out that private security firms already guard the vast majority of federal buildings under the Federal Protective Service's supervision.
A memo to staff from the service's Acting Director Paul Durette Monday said it would be "realigned" as a "standards-setting and compliance-centered operation" with 950 employees, from the current 1,250 or so.
The changes mean the service "workforce will be primarily composed of inspectors," with "patrol functions ... limited only to the highest risk major metropolitan areas, or in locations where special security arrangements require" them.
The service will maintain its inspectors, and "a core group of criminal investigators dedicated to intelligence and investigative activities related to federal facilities," but "the remaining uniformed cadre of police officers (in the agency) will be absorbed into other law enforcement functions" within homeland security, or encouraged to take early retirement, states the memo.
The move will complete the service's transformation from a police force that actually guards U.S. government buildings across the country, including federal courthouses, to one which largely sets and enforces standards on private firms hired by other agencies to provide security at the 880 or so facilities it is responsible for.
"This will be the last nail in the coffin," said David Wright, president of the service's union, American Federation of Government Employees Local 918. "It will break morale, it will break the service."
Wright said Durrette's proposal was "a rehash of failed initiatives they have tried before."
"The administration is proposing to walk away from its basic responsibility" to protect federal buildings around the country, said American Federation of Government Employees National President John Gage in a statement, vowing to oppose the cuts.
A homeland security official authorized to speak to the media told United Press International those charges were unwarranted.
"This transformation is about making (the service) proactive," said the official, saying the shift would be towards the service's "core competencies" like threat assessment and planning, and away from "reactive" roles like incident response where the service's capabilities were duplicated by those of other agencies.
"This is not a change in mission," the official said, "it is a change in how the mission is executed ... to a more risk-based approach in line with the National Infrastructure Protection Plan" -- a federal document that defines the roles and responsibilities of various actors in securing vital facilities.
The official said the department was reviewing the service's role "looking at areas where its responsibilities might duplicate those of other agencies."
The end result would be "a higher standard of service for our customers," the federal agencies who own and operate the buildings the service protects.
Wright said the plan was a response to a huge budget deficit the agency had -- up to $65 million -- blaming the departmental leadership at Homeland Security for their "reluctance ... to go back to Congress to help solve this problem."
The service's management "is not being forthcoming about where the deficit comes from," Wright said, adding legislators he had spoken to this week were demanding a government audit of the service's finances.
The Federal Protective Service is managed as part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, a part of the Department of Homeland Security that has struggled with budgeting and accounting problems since the department was first stood up in 2003.
Wright, who has worked for the service for more than a decade, said it "has always been dysfunctional, but the move into ICE was a disaster." He said that ICE imposed fees for shared administrative services on his agency which were "almost exactly the same" as the budget deficit.
Wright said the audit would be carried out by the Government Accountability Office, and that he believed the results would impel lawmakers to action.
"I have confidence that Congress will fix this," he said, adding the service could still be saved by a timely intervention. "We are proud to be in (the Department of Homeland Security) and we think we have a vital role to play. We can get better," he said.
