Carper Urges Bush to Work Towards Solutions in Creating Homeland Security Department

WASHINGTON, DC – In a meeting at the White House, Senator Tom Carper urged President Bush to work face-to-face with labor leaders to create a Department of Homeland Security that would have broad-based national support. Carper met today with the President and other Senators who formerly served as Governors. “As former Governors, we are committed to finding solutions that work. I urged the President to work with – not against – labor and other groups concerned about his move to strip thousands of employees of their collective bargaining rights. I urged him to sit down face-to-face and work out the problems,” said Carper, a member of the Government Affairs Committee that drafted the bill to create agency. “The threat against our nation from terrorism is real and the need for action is certain. Real homeland defense requires better coordination between agencies and real accountability for those charged with our protection. We can accomplish those goals without stripping the Department’s new employees of their rights,” Carper said.