Cites Terror Threat
Clinton Battles Cut In Protective Staff

By ARI PAUL

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton is attempting to halt the downsizing of the security service that oversees the protection of Federal buildings.

HILLARY CLINTON: Cuts would be 'rash.'

Senator Clinton along with Sen. Chuck Schumer and several colleagues added an amendment to a bill allocating funding to the Department of Homeland Security July 25 that would stop staff cutbacks in the Federal Protective Service. The bill passed the Senate July 26 and must be signed by the President to become law.

Sets Minimum Staffing

Citing the recently foiled terrorist scheme targeting John F. Kennedy International Airport here, Senator Clinton called the decision to cut back staff "rash" and "inconsistent" with the terrorist threat the city faces. The amendment included a provision to keep the minimum number of officers at the FPS at 1,200.

"I am pleased that my Senate colleagues agree that the Bush Administration's plan when it comes to the Federal Protective Service is completely unacceptable," Senator Clinton said in a statement. "This amendment will stop another attempt on the part of the Bush Administration to downsize and privatize our homeland security."

Senator Clinton also wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff last week protesting the cutbacks.

"After the 1995 terrorist bombing at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the General Service Administration and Congress concluded that FPS required 1,480 field personnel," Senator Clinton wrote in a letter to Secretary Chertoff. "This year, DHS reduced FPS personnel to less than 1,200, and will reduce it further to 950 for 2008. I understand that the Department of Homeland Security is planning to eliminate almost all of the FPS police officer positions throughout the country, and has already begun to end night and weekend shifts and 24-hour patrols in New York City and other areas throughout the nation."

Jamie Zuieback, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees the FPS, declined to comment on the appropriations bill but said the Bush Administration was proposing a historic increase in funding for the FPS. Noting that DHS wanted to decrease the full-time officer staff to 950, she added that FPS will move to a "risk-based model" and refocus its protection priorities.

"We'd be going to an inspection-based work force," Ms. Zuieback said.