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By MIMI HALL
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department is losing top managers and rank-and-file employees in a brain drain that could affect morale and the nation’s safety, according to members of Congress and labor experts.
Homeland Security is “hemorrhaging on the front lines and higher up,” says New York University professor Paul Light, an expert on the federal workforce. The turnover comes amid renewed threats of terrorism and as the department readies itself for another hurricane season.
Key vacancies include top leaders in the department’s cybersecurity, technology and disaster response divisions.
The latest high-level departure came last week, when management chief Janet Hale announced she was leaving. She joined an exodus of top officials who have quit recently, many in the aftermath of Homeland Security’s failures surrounding Hurricane Katrina last fall.
This month, operations chief Matthew Broderick resigned. Last month, Science and Technology Undersecretary Charles McQueary resigned. And in January, Chief Financial Officer Andy Maner quit.
Meanwhile, the job of cybersecurity chief has been vacant since last summer. David Paulison has been the acting chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency since Michael Brown resigned the $148,000 post in September; no permanent replacement has been found. FEMA is part of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke acknowledged that the stress of top-level government security jobs can be grueling and “wear” on employees, who are expected to make “countless personal sacrifices.” Nonetheless, he said he expects a number of the top jobs to be filled soon.
The impact is difficult to gauge. But a House investigation of Hurricane Katrina response recently cited personnel shortages at FEMA as a key part of the agency’s failings during the disaster.
“It can’t help morale for the rank-and-file employees when you have so much turnover,” says Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. “There just appears to be a continuous brain drain out of the agency.”
FEMA typically has 2,500 full-time employees. When Katrina hit, it was down 500. Some of those positions have been filled, but the agency is still struggling to get back to full strength.
To prepare for the next hurricane season, officials in February announced a plan to ensure 95 percent of FEMA’s jobs are filled by June 1.
Randall Larsen of the Institute for Homeland Security questions how the department will attract good people. Though many top-level jobs pay more than $100,000, “Who’s going to give up a good job in the private sector to go into an organization that is criticized by the press and Congress and the American people?” he said.