[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 59 (Thursday, April 4, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY MORALE, RECOGNITION, LEARNING AND 
                         ENGAGEMENT ACT OF 2019

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 1, 2019

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1433 
the ``DHS MORALE Act'', which would help improve morale among the 
240,00 employees of the Department by creating and cataloguing 
leadership development opportunities, identifying and addressing 
factors that impact employee engagement, and recognizing employee 
contributions through the many plans it offers such as the employee 
effort recognition award plan which recognizes employees for their 
efforts over the year and through the DHS Rotation Program to create 
opportunities for employees.
  As a senior member of the Committee and a former chair and ranking 
member of the Homeland Security Committee and Transportation Security 
Subcommittee, I understand how important this bill will be in enhancing 
employee engagement.
  H.R. 1433 addresses and is responsible to the needs of DHS employees 
by developing frameworks to create leadership opportunities and by 
assessing the needs of the employees in supervisory as well as non-
supervisory roles.
  The DHS Rotation Program is one of the many programs that this bill 
has helped steer employees towards by having the Chief Human Capital 
Officer maintain a catalogue of development opportunities.
  The bill also establishes an Employee Engagement Steering Committee--
through which factors are identified that affect employee morale 
comprised of representatives and individuals throughout the department 
and labor organizations representing the DHS employees and involvement 
and solutions sought to counter-act those problems.
  This process enhances employee morale as it requires a Department 
wide Engagement Action Plan to be implemented which comes through the 
input from the Steering committee.
  The bill directs that employees be recognized for their efforts over 
the year by establishing an Employee Award Program which help with the 
goals of the department.
  This bill greatly helps DHS move in a positive direction when it 
comes to addressing its longstanding problems of the morale concerns of 
employees.
  I strongly support this bill and urge all my colleagues to join me in 
voting for its passage.

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