[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4982]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      DHS APPOINTMENT FLEXIBILITY

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise to support a bill offered by my good 
friend Senator Voinovich to treat the appointment of the chief Human 
Capital Officer, CHCO, at the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, the 
same as all other CHCO appointments.
  As part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Congress established 
CHCOs at Federal agencies to improve workforce planning so agencies 
could better meet their omissions. Agencies were given the discretion 
whether to designate the position as a political appointment or career 
civil servant. However, the act required the CHCO at DHS to be a 
political appointee nominated by the President. Where most agencies can 
select political or career positions without having to go through an 
external source, DHS has to go outside its walls to have the President 
select a person for this position.
  Throughout the Federal Government, the mix of political and career 
CHCOs is almost equal. The important factor is that each agency has the 
discretion to choose whether the CHCO position best fits into the 
framework of the agency and its human capital strategy as a political 
or civilian employee. DHS by statute does not have this flexibility. As 
such, we believe that DHS should be treated like all other Federal 
agencies and have the discretion whether to make the position a 
political or career civil service job. Our bill would make the 
requirements for the CHCO position uniform for all agencies.
  DHS has faced many management challenges and integration issues. The 
DHS CHCO office has been working diligently to address the human 
capital challenges within DHS and through the CHCO Council. The DHS 
CHCO has partnered with other agencies to discover best practices and 
tackle difficult issues of succession planning, administration 
transition planning, hiring strategies, and workforce flexibilities. 
CHCOs' work is critical to the support of effective government 
management and strategic workforce planning. Given DHS's critical 
mission and the fact that it continues to remain on the Government 
Accountability Office High-Risk List, it is important to give DHS the 
same flexibility as other Federal agencies in appointing its CHCO.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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