On October 14, the House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing, “Diversity at the Department of Homeland Security: Continuing Challenges and New Opportunities.”
Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said, “This Department [of Homeland Security] the newest federal agency has an opportunity. And while this opportunity exists, it will not last long. OPM [Office of Personnel Management] predicts that a large percentage of the federal workforce may retire within the next three years. The Partnership for Public Service found that 33 percent of [the] workforce are minorities and 43 percent are women. We are also told that the department is likely to hire 65,000 new employees in the next three years. There will be many workers leaving and many new workers coming onboard. This is the moment. Now is the time. If the department does not figure out how to diversify its workforce, we run the risk that non-inclusive hiring patterns will be solidified.”
Several representatives from the Department of Homeland Security, including Jane Holl Lute, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), testified about diversity efforts and statistics at various federal agencies within DHS. For example, she noted that the Transportation Safety Administration “[c]onducted a barrier analysis to identify barriers to recruiting and retaining women as Federal Air Marshals (FAMs). The findings offer specific recommendations for recruitment of female FAMs.” She added that while the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “has a number of policies aimed at recruiting minority workers, it does not have an overarching diversity plan. That needs to change…The need for this plan is underscored by the current workforce statistics at FEMA…While females accounted for 57 percent of the FEMA workforce at the GS-12 level and below, they represent 39 percent of the GS-13 and GS-14 workforce. At the GS-15 level, women accounted for 28 percent of the workforce.” She also noted that “Women and African Americans are underrepresented throughout CBP [Customs and Border Protection], [and] especially within the CBP Office of Border Patrol,” but that “CBP has undertaken a targeted recruitment effort during the past two years in an attempt to raise the number of women and African Americans in its workforce. CBP continues to work towards the goal of increasing female and African American representation in its workforce by increasing community outreach activities and directing CBP National Recruitment Team events toward diversity-oriented programs.”
Ms. Lute added, “The recruitment program [within the United States Secret Service] has consistently maintained a proactive recruiting approach in its efforts to recruit women. In FY2008, the recruitment program attended 16 career fairs specifically targeting women and two national conferences. Thus far, in FY2009, the recruitment program has attended two career fairs specifically targeting women and two national conferences, with additional events already scheduled this year. The recruitment program also has advertised in Professional Women’s Magazine and Essence Magazine, and it has distributed pamphlets to over 74 women’s colleges and universities.”
The Acting Vice Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Christine Griffin, said, “In the past, an agency may have made a concerted effort to hire more women into their workforce, but never examined why women were historically excluded from certain opportunities. Such exclusion may have resulted from societal discrimination or the agency’s own practices. As a result, while the number of women hired increased, the attrition rate for women was much higher than men because the inequitable systems were left in place. The low participation rate for women was a symptom but to find the root cause the agency would need to analyze and improve all relevant employment policies, procedures, and practices that limited opportunity.” She continued, “In 2005, the Department [of Homeland Security] reported to EEOC that it planned to conduct a detailed barrier analysis due to lower than expected participation rates for females throughout the department. Our review indicates that the department has failed to provide adequate resources necessary to analyze and solve the issue. For example, since 2005, the department has recognized the need to capture applicant data to analyze and measure its recruitment efforts, but resources have not been allocated to collect this crucial data.”
Ms. Griffin also provided statistics on the number of minority women in senior management positions at DHS: “This consolidated organization employs over 170,000 individuals. Men comprise 68 percent of the department’s workforce while women comprise 32 percent of the workforce. Men occupy 76 percent of the department’s senior level positions. Government-wide, men account for 57 percent of the federal workforce and 71 percent of the senior level positions…Hispanic females account for less than 1 percent of the senior level positions…white females only account for 21 percent of the senior level positions…[and] black females only account for a little over 1 percent of the Department’s senior level positions.”
During questions, Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) asked the panel to comment on whether the allegations of sexual harassment at the David Letterman show were symptomatic of a larger problem: “The way I view it…it appears that there was, in that environment, a hostile environment for women…Is it your observation that what I have seen with respect to Letterman is an aberration of where we are as a society? Or, is it such a problem today that…everyone knows what’s going on? If you want to advance, that’s what you do and if…you don’t want to play that game you’re not going to advance?”
Ms. Lute responded, “I’ve been addressing this issue for 32 years…I take very seriously and take very personally the work climate that women are exposed to because they don’t always tell you. They think there is merit in silence. I take very seriously my responsibility as a leader…You can tell a leadership climate by walking into an office. How do people act with each other? How do they act with their bosses? If you aren’t walking around, if you aren’t talking to people, you won’t find this out because it’s not going to come walking to your desk…It is my personal commitment, and certainly the secretary’s personal commitment that Homeland Security will not only be a department where diversity can thrive, but where we are at the leading edge of best practices in the federal government for a diverse workforce.”
Yvonne Jones, director of Strategic Issues at the Government Accountability Office, W. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Jayson Ahern, acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Gale Rossides, acting assistant secretary of the Transportation Security Administration, and Mark Sullivan, director of the U.S. Secret Service, also testified.
