[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 32 (Monday, February 29, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1072-S1073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO FEDERAL EMPLOYEES


                               Phil Nowak

  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, last month I came to the floor--in fact, 
I come to the floor just about every month--to highlight the great work 
being done by the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security.
  Last month I focused on the folks who work at FEMA, which is one of 
22 agencies that collectively make up the Department of Homeland 
Security--the newest, youngest Department in the Federal Government.
  Just a few days before my speech, much of the east coast was 
inundated, as you may recall, by one of the largest snowstorms we have 
had in a long time, and on that day FEMA was working around the clock 
to prepare for and respond to what could have been a much more 
devastating storm. We were hit hard, but we would have been a lot worse 
off if not for the preparation and the training FEMA had done in not 
just the days, weeks, and months, but literally years ahead leading up 
to the storm in order to make us better prepared.
  For more than a year now, I have come to the floor and I have focused 
on a different agency within the Department of Homeland Security. It 
will take about 2 years to knock them all out, but we are making some 
progress, and I have done so to highlight the exemplary and important 
work done by more than some 200,000 people who comprise the Department 
of Homeland Security. They work around the country, and they work 
outside our country--in Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, 
and all over the place in order to make us safer in this country.
  These men and women perform a wide range of vitally important work, 
and they do it every day. They inspect the fruit and vegetables that 
arrive at our ports of entry, much like the Port of Wilmington in my 
State. It is the top banana port in the country. They patrol our 
borders, like the Border Patrol agents dealing with increased migration 
from Central America. They defend our computer networks in cyber space, 
responding to a new and growing 21st-century threat. They keep our 
Presidents and Vice Presidents and their families and former Presidents 
and their families, as well as candidates for those positions, along 
with visiting foreign dignitaries, safe from harm. They have a lot of 
work to do.
  The work of these DHS personnel deployed at the frontlines is made 
possible in part because of the dedicated work of the men and women 
behind the scenes at the Department of Homeland Security's Management 
Directorate. As my colleagues have often heard me say, management 
really does matter. I will say it again: Management really does matter. 
And there are few places where that is more true than at the Department 
of Homeland Security.
  The Management Directorate works to support the missions and 
employees of all 22 component agencies which together comprise the 
Department of Homeland Security. They rent field offices, they buy 
essential equipment and vehicles, and they help to ensure that 
Department employees receive the paychecks and benefits they have 
worked for and earned. Within the Management Directorate, the Office of 
the Chief Human Capital Officer works to ensure that the Department is 
doing what is best for its employees, while providing the Department 
managers with the guidance and resources they need to help DHS take 
care of their own.
  One member of the Management Directorate is an especially committed 
fellow whose name is Phil Nowak. He is committed to DHS employees--his 
fellow colleagues. He is the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Chief 
Human Capital Officer.
  Phil grew up not in Iowa or Delaware, he grew up in San Francisco, 
not far from where I served in the Navy for a while. He joined the U.S. 
Coast Guard right after college. After serving in the Coast Guard for 
20 years, he retired as a commander. I was once a commander--my 
favorite rank. Both of us served and exchange salutes all the time, 
Madam President. But Phil retired as a commander in 2007 and joined the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency to help coordinate disaster 
response. In 2010 Phil moved to the Office of the Chief Human Capital 
Officer, and in 2013 he took over as Chief of Staff.

  As Chief of Staff, Phil supports the work of the Chief Human Capital 
Officer in managing the workforce of the third largest Cabinet agency 
in our Federal Government--the third largest. With 22 component 
agencies and DHS employees stationed literally around the world, Phil 
and his team of 200 men and women certainly have their work cut out for 
them. Supporting the Department employees and providing them with the 
resources they need to excel and grow in their work is critical to 
maintaining a motivated, effective, and capable Department.
  With some notable exceptions, we know many of the components of this 
relatively young Department have struggled with employee morale almost 
from its inception. Each year the Partnership for Public Service 
releases its ``Best Places to Work in the Federal Government'' survey, 
and each year the Department of Homeland Security ranks at or near the 
bottom of all the agencies when it comes to overall employee morale.
  With Congress imposing shortsighted budget cuts across government, 
imposing pay freezes, and just last week threatening a shutdown of the 
Department of Homeland Security in the middle of our fight against 
ISIS, it is no wonder that sometimes DHS employees feel unappreciated. 
We probably would too. Despite these setbacks, leaders such as Phil 
Nowak are working every day and every night to right the ship and 
improve morale at DHS. And a bunch of us here in the Senate, Democrats 
and Republicans, are trying to be helpful in that regard.
  In providing leadership and direction for human capital management 
for the Department, Phil Nowak makes sure that the Department's efforts 
to improve morale translate to each of the 22 different component 
agencies of the Department of Homeland Security and are felt by each of 
its 240,000 employees. To help do this, Secretary Jeh Johnson has 
created what he calls a Unity of Effort Initiative to bring the 
Department of Homeland Security components together and make the 
Department greater than the sum of its parts. Phil leads one of the 
Unity of Effort Initiatives. It is called the Human Capital Leadership 
Council, which brings together human resources managers from across the 
Department. Through this coordination and other Unity of Effort 
Initiatives, Phil's team works hard to better ensure that the 
Department's 240,000 employees feel like part of a larger DHS family.
  In such a large agency, with so many people with diverse talents and 
backgrounds spread around the world, it is easy to focus on the broader 
mission and lose sight of the individuals who help the Department 
achieves its many missions, but Phil, I am happy to say, hasn't lost 
sight of them. Phil and his team do yeomen's work, and they focus on 
the value that each and every employee adds to the Department's 
mission. It is fitting, then, that Phil's colleagues describe him as 
caring deeply for them and for other employees throughout the 
Department. His commitment to them is clear, it is welcome, and it is 
unwavering.
  In his own life, Phil values professional resilience, and in a job 
that is sometimes overlooked, yet incredibly important, I think that is 
a necessary trait. It is also a fitting quality for a runner, and Phil 
is an avid runner. I like to run, but this man, Madam President is the 
real deal. He has completed both the Marine Corps Marathon and the JFK 
50 Mile ultra-marathon

[[Page S1073]]

twice. I am not fit to carry his running shoes. When he isn't running, 
Phil is building or fixing something around the house, cheering on 
those San Francisco 49ers and the San Francisco Giants--I hope it is 
not when they are playing my Detroit Tigers--and spending time with his 
wife of 26 years, Cristy, and their three children, Sam, Elizabeth, and 
Andrew. We are grateful to them for sharing their husband and their 
dad.
  Phil Nowak is just one example of the thousands of men and women at 
the Department of Homeland Security who work behind the scenes every 
day to support their colleagues and make our country safer for all of 
us. Phil and his team focus on individuals, they bring together 
components through a unity of effort, and they work tirelessly to 
improve employee morale. Management really does matter, and without 
Phil and his colleagues at the Management Directorate, the Department's 
mission to protect our homeland would suffer.
  To Phil Nowak and to his team in the Office of the Chief Human 
Capital Officer, to every other hard-working employee at the Department 
of Homeland Security and at the Directorate for Management, I want to 
say a couple of words: Thank you. Let me say them again: Thank you.
  This past week I was doing some traveling and going through some 
airports. We usually try to use the TSA precheck, which goes a little 
more smoothly because people have been prescreened. At one place we 
were flying out of, they advertised TSA precheck was open, but it 
wasn't, so we had to be regular, ordinary people. At each of those 
places, the folks at TSA--right there at the frontline trying to 
protect us as we fly around the country, around the world in these 
airplanes--they were doing their job. It is a hard job, and I would say 
probably a thankless job. Everyone wants to get through. They do not 
want to take their shoes off or their belts off or have to take their 
toiletries out. They want to get through there, get on the plane, and 
go someplace, but not get harmed and arrive safely.
  When I fly, a lot of times I will tell the folks at TSA who I am and 
the committee I serve on just to let them know we appreciate the work 
they do for all of us. Every now and then--including over the weekend--
a TSA officer will say to me: Nobody has ever thanked me before. How 
about that. Nobody has ever thanked me before.
  So I say: Well, let me thank you again. And keep doing your job well, 
and hopefully you will get a lot of thanks.
  But to all the folks at DHS who are taking on a hard job and doing it 
well, we thank you for what you do every day to protect our country, 
the land of the free and the home of the brave. And may God bless you.

                          ____________________