House report criticizes Homeland Security's workforce diversity

Government Executive
By Alyssa Rosenberg arosenberg@govexec.com March 11, 2008

The Homeland Security Department's career workforce, including senior executives, is less diverse than other federal agencies, according to a report released Friday by the House Homeland Security Committee.
"Racial and gender diversity help to ensure that a wide range of perspectives are taken into account when decisions are made," said Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. "The makeup of the department's senior leadership must be reflective of the face of America."
DHS spokesman Russ Knocke vigorously contested the report's findings and said the department was deeply committed to advancing diversity.
"There were 2,500 Homeland Security employees at the celebration of DHS's fifth anniversary], and had Chairman Thompson actually accepted our invitation and joined that event, he would have seen 2,500 very diverse employees right there in that audience," Knocke said.
African-Americans make up 14.5 percent of the DHS workforce and 17.4 percent of the federal workforce as a whole, the report said. African-Americans comprise 8.5 percent of the entire Senior Executive and 6.5 percent of Homeland Security's top ranks.
Women also are underrepresented at DHS, according to the committee's report. They make up 33.7 percent of the workforce and 25.3 percent of the SES at the department. Governmentwide, women are 44.6 percent of the federal workforce and 28.9 percent of the SES.
Hispanics are the only minority group that has greater representation at DHS than in the federal workforce at large. Hispanics make up 16.5 percent of the department's workforce versus 7.3 percent of the federal workforce. Homeland Security's Senior Executive Service is 5.4 percent Hispanic, while Hispanics comprise 3.4 percent of the SES across the executive branch.
DHS headquarters in Washington has 46 senior executives, among them one Hispanic and one African-American. Those groups were better represented in the SES of DHS component agencies. The report pointed out that the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and the Science and Technology Directorate had no minority senior executives at all. Just 2.1 percent of the SES in the inspector general's office is female. [To view the entire article, go to: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39496&dcn=todays_most_popular ]