Compromise reached on Homeland Security bill

New proposal to move to Senate, House floors

Bush on Tuesday urged lawmakers to pass his proposal for a homeland security department.

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VIDEO White House and congressional leaders reached a compromise they hope will pave the way for creation of the Department of Homeland Security. CNN's Skip Loescher reports (November 13) PLAY VIDEO SPECIAL REPORT • Interactive: The hunt for al Qaeda • Audio slide show: Bin Laden's audio message, 2/03 • Terror warning system • Special report: Terror on tape • Special report: War against terror

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House and congressional leaders Tuesday struck a new compromise agreement they hope will pave the way for passage of legislation to create a Department of Homeland Security, the president's top priority in the lame-duck Congress.

As his staff acknowledged the votes are there to pass it, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said he will move the compromise to the Senate floor Wednesday, despite his personal opposition to it.

The House also will vote on a version of the bill that incorporates the compromise Wednesday, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert said.

Three moderate senators, John Breaux, D-Louisiana, Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, and Lincoln Chafee, R-Rhode Island, crafted the compromise proposal on the thorny issue of labor rights within the new department along with Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, and the White House.

"We believe this new proposal represents improvement in the personnel flexibility provisions [from the original GOP proposal]," Breaux, Chafee and Nelson said in a written statement.

Daschle said he thinks the new compromise is not as good as a previous one.

"The original Nelson-Chafee-Breaux bipartisan compromise on workers' rights fairly and appropriately balanced the interests of national security and the rights of workers and I support it," he said in a written statement.

HOMELAND SECURITY • Homeland Security shuffle

"I do not support any attempt to weaken that compromise."

But he added, "There may be differences of opinion on different components of the legislation but there is no disagreement that we need to complete our work on this bill promptly."

An aide to Daschle said the senator has no intention of filibustering the proposal.

"The new compromise appears to have the votes, so we will vote on it," said Daschle spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer.

Breaking an impasse on the labor dispute paves the way for final passage of the bill, which could happen as early as the end of the week.

The proposed department would combine 170,000 workers from 22 agencies, including the Border Patrol, Coast Guard and Customs Service, into a Department of Homeland Security with a $37 billion budget.

Congressional sources told CNN the new compromise would give Bush the flexibility he needs to hire and fire workers in the new department, while giving unions a right to challenge new rules.

The House of Representatives had already passed a White House-backed version of the measure, but Senate Democrats said that version would give Bush too much power and undercut civil service protections for workers. The version the House is to vote on Wednesday will supercede the earlier one.

Under the tentative agreement, if the department or the White House wants to make a change in the rules governing its employees, it must first inform union representatives. The federal employees union then has 30 days to offer proposed changes to the new rule.

If the two sides do not come to an immediate agreement, the department's secretary could declare an impasse, which would trigger two actions: the department would send proposed changes and union objections to Congress for review; and the two sides would enter a 30-day mediation process with an independent board.

If that mediation process failed and no common ground was found between the government and the employees, the secretary could go ahead and implement the proposed changes.

According to congressional sources, a provision allowing guns in the cockpit and smallpox vaccination are also included in the proposal, while a provision to create an independent commission to look into September 11 is not.

Meanwhile, Bush was meeting Tuesday with the Senate's newest member, Minnesota independent Dean Barkley, who took his seat earlier in the afternoon. Barkley also has said a homeland security bill is his top priority.

The measure will be debated by a Senate that will stay in Democratic hands for at least a few weeks. Barkley said Monday he would not align himself with either party during the lame-duck session, meaning Democrats -- who have the support of the chamber's other independent, Jim Jeffords of Vermont -- will retain their one-vote edge over Republicans.

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura named Barkley -- his former campaign manager -- last week to temporarily replace Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in an Oct. 25 plane crash. Barkley told CNN his decision came after consulting other prominent independents, including Jeffords, former presidential candidate John Anderson and Lowell Weicker, a former Connecticut senator and governor.

"Across the board, their advice was: Keep your options open, and stay true to yourself, your principles and your constituents," he said.

The new Republican senator from Missouri also could be sworn in early if election results there are certified before the end of the lame-duck session. That election was to fill the seat now held by Democrat Jean Carnahan, who was temporarily appointed to the seat won in 2000 by her late husband.

-- CNN Correspondent Kate Snow and Producer Dana Bash contributed to this report.

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