Union: Contractors weaken Federal Protective Service, placing feds at risk

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Federal Daily

Federal building security is just not what it should be. So says yet another federal employees’ union, 15 years after terrorist Timothy McVeigh destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Building with a truck bomb, killing 168 and injuring nearly 700.

The union that represents the Federal Protective Service tasked with guarding federal buildings recently reiterated to Federal Daily, an 1105 Government Information Group site, its continuing concerns about FPS’s less-than-optimal security software and other potential security weaknesses.

Since that time, the leadership of the 150,000-strong National Treasury Employees Union—pointing to recent tragic attacks on federal buildings—also has complained, telling Congress that FPS relies far too much on private contractors armed with too little training, too little funding, and too little proper management to actually carry out its mission.

“Attacks on Internal Revenue Service offices in Austin, Texas, and shootings at a Las Vegas federal courthouse and at the Pentagon have once again raised concerns about the vulnerability of federal buildings and the safety and security of federal employees who work in them around the country,” NTEU President Colleen Kelley told the House Homeland Security Committee on April 15. “These attacks, in which two federal employees were killed and several others seriously injured, serve as a grim reminder of the great risk that federal employees face each and every day in service to this country.”


Read more: http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2010/04/20/federal-protective-service.aspx

---

Lead in: Too much contracting, too little funding for security could lead to another devastating attack reminiscent of Oklahoma City

For more, go to: www.nteu.org.

About the Author

Federal Daily, an 1105 Government Information Group site, features news and resources for federal and postal employees.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. K&R

:kick:

[bluedigger]

2. Well, they have a point, I guess.

Austin probably isn't a great example to use, though. Not much to be done about crazy people flying planes into buildings. Anti-aircraft guns on the roof of every federal building? Not happening.

Their complaint, which is fair, is that the huge increase in private security contractors at federal installations since 9-11 has been accompanied by a decrease in the folks that are supposed to be supervising them. They are overworked and unable to cope with the job. We should do something about that.

[Downwinder]

3. Look at how easy it was to get into the Federal Building in NOLA. n/t

[Synicus Maximus]

4. But McVeigh was never in the building the bomb was exploded

outside of the building.