WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security said this week that it employs more private contractors than federal employees, an admission that officials blamed on the department’s quick establishment seven years ago and the federal government’s burdensome hiring process.
DHS officials informed Senate staffers this month that it employs roughly 200,000 contractors and about 188,000 federal employees. The figure does not include uniformed members of the Coast Guard, which is one of the department’s 22 agencies.
“That raises a question of whether it’s the most efficient use of taxpayer money, but also the question of who’s making critical decisions at the department,” Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said Wednesday during a hearing of the homeland security committee on the department’s annual budget requests. “Is it private contractors, or is it full-time federal employees?”
He called the figures “shocking and unacceptable.”
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called the estimates “a high number” but would not say, when asked by Lieberman, whether she thought the figure was too high.
“I think the number illustrates a problem, or an issue we have to work on,” Napolitano told senators. “The department was stood up quickly, and in order to accomplish the many missions that it has, contracting was a mechanism to be used.”
Paul Light, a Brookings Institution scholar on the federal government, disputed the DHS estimates and said the number of contractors is likely to be much higher.
DHS agencies are reviewing the balance of government and contracting positions to determine which jobs should be “insourced,” or converted to the federal payroll, Napolitano said. Her own office hopes to cut contractor support by 40 percent, according to the department’s 2011 budget requests.
Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, applauded Napolitano’s review but said DHS should focus less on the number of contractors and more on the skills they provide.
“I could have 100,000 federal employees, but if I don’t have 100,000 federal employees with the right skills, that doesn’t necessarily solve the challenge,” Soloway said.
