WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Opponents of the Democratic-backed proposal to establish a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security defeated a Senate motion to move to a final vote, citing a White House demand to remove conventional labor protections from the new agency.
The 49 to 49 cloture vote, which needed 61 votes to pass, would have ended debate on the proposal offered by Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., that leaves the conventional collective bargaining, workforce protection and other labor standards in place. But faced with stiff White House opposition and a GOP-backed counterproposal that removes many of the labor protections, the Senate was unable to move forward to a final vote.
As a result, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., attempted a parliamentary move Wednesday afternoon to send the entire bill back to the Senate Government Affairs Committee -- chaired by Lieberman -- which could add the amended language without the Senate's approval. The revised bill could then come back to the floor for a final vote, but getting the Senate to approve the maneuver could prove tricky for Daschle, as it opens a host of opinions to opponents to further stall or kill the bill.
After defeating cloture on Lieberman's bill, the Senate began debate on the White House-backed amendment proffered by Texas Republican Phil Gramm and the only Democrat to break ranks on the issue, Georgia Sen. Zell Miller. The Gramm-Miller language is almost identical to Lieberman's, except it eliminates the labor protections.
"I find it remarkable that roughly half the members of the Senate seem intent on taking power from the president," Gramm said. "(These are) emergency powers the president had on September the 11th. This language would actually weaken the president's ability to use national security powers to protect America."
The Senate is currently debating the Miller-Gramm amendment, but no agreement has been reached on when it could come for a vote. But there is no indication that it would receive any more support than Lieberman's amendment received.
At present, most of the estimated 170,000 workers from scores of federal agencies that would be consolidated have some version of federal workforce regulations, but currently and under every proposal, the major law enforcement and intelligence agencies do not have collective bargaining and job protection regulations.
In an effort to resolve the stalemate -- in which neither side has enough votes to prevail -- Sens. John Breaux, D-La., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., have introduced compromise legislation that would reduce some of the GOP complaints about the bill, but it was not well received by the White House, which threatened to veto anything short of the Miller-Gramm proposal.
Any Homeland Security bill passed by Congress would meet a veto by President George W. Bush if it contained the Chafee, Breaux, Nelson proposal, administration officials said.
"The Senate describes it as a compromise," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "It is not.
"Under the so-called Chafee, Breaux, Nelson compromise the president would have less national security authority in the Department of Homeland Security than he has in any other department and agency in the federal government today."
Under the compromise amendment, he job would have to have been changed materially and be directly involved in anti-terrorism for rules to not apply. If unions objected to the change in the employee's status -- and proposed exemption from collective bargaining -- the matter would be sent to arbitration.
"Make no mistake," Fleischer said. "This is a rollback and a restriction" at a time the president needs more authority over the labor force.
Fleischer said the Chafee, Breaux, Nelson measure was "exactly what the special interests of a few government unions" unsuccessfully to get put in the House bill last July.
The proposed Department of Homeland Security would involve about 170,000 workers -- about 43,000 of them unionized -- and 22 government entities. The president says he wants the same authority he enjoys with other agencies to exempt workers from collective bargaining rights when national security is involved.
"Every president since John F. Kennedy has exercised the authority with discretion and care, yet under this amendment, this discretion would be stripped away from the president," Fleischer said.
