bdschobel
Sep 27, 02, 6:52 am
From today's New York Times:
Hiring Ends Until Budget Passes
By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 — The Transportation Security Administration, which was set up after the Sept. 11 attacks to supervise air safety, has frozen most of its hiring because Congress has not approved its budget for the fiscal year that will begin on Tuesday, the agency said today.
The agency has hired most of the screeners to replace private contractors at airport checkpoints but has hired few workers to scan checked baggage for bombs.
The federal fiscal year will end on Monday night, and because of a dispute about the overall level of the federal budget, Congress has passed none of the 13 regular spending bills.
The House and the Senate plan to vote this week on a stopgap spending measure to continue government operations until Oct. 4 at the current level of spending, and it is likely to pass overwhelmingly. Tentative plans call for additional stopgap measures, called continuing resolutions, after that.
From the security agency's point of view, that is not good enough. The resolution leaves a limit of 45,000 employees that was supposed to have lasted only through Monday. The Bush administration requested a cap of 67,200 employees for the new fiscal year.
How long the government will operate by continuing resolutions is not clear. At the Federal Aviation Administration, which is under the same budget bill as the security agency, one high-ranking official said he had been told to plan for six months.
But the Transportation Security Administration is still being set up. The law that established it called for federal employees to replace contract airport screeners by Nov. 19 and for scanning of all checked bags for explosives by Dec. 31.
In a memorandum to subordinates late Wednesday, James Loy, the acting leader of the security agency, said that new employees who had been told to start on Sunday would be hired. But a spokesman, Robert Johnson, said those who were to start later "will get further guidance at some point as to their status."
Hiring Ends Until Budget Passes
By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 — The Transportation Security Administration, which was set up after the Sept. 11 attacks to supervise air safety, has frozen most of its hiring because Congress has not approved its budget for the fiscal year that will begin on Tuesday, the agency said today.
The agency has hired most of the screeners to replace private contractors at airport checkpoints but has hired few workers to scan checked baggage for bombs.
The federal fiscal year will end on Monday night, and because of a dispute about the overall level of the federal budget, Congress has passed none of the 13 regular spending bills.
The House and the Senate plan to vote this week on a stopgap spending measure to continue government operations until Oct. 4 at the current level of spending, and it is likely to pass overwhelmingly. Tentative plans call for additional stopgap measures, called continuing resolutions, after that.
From the security agency's point of view, that is not good enough. The resolution leaves a limit of 45,000 employees that was supposed to have lasted only through Monday. The Bush administration requested a cap of 67,200 employees for the new fiscal year.
How long the government will operate by continuing resolutions is not clear. At the Federal Aviation Administration, which is under the same budget bill as the security agency, one high-ranking official said he had been told to plan for six months.
But the Transportation Security Administration is still being set up. The law that established it called for federal employees to replace contract airport screeners by Nov. 19 and for scanning of all checked bags for explosives by Dec. 31.
In a memorandum to subordinates late Wednesday, James Loy, the acting leader of the security agency, said that new employees who had been told to start on Sunday would be hired. But a spokesman, Robert Johnson, said those who were to start later "will get further guidance at some point as to their status."