By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com President Obama said he won’t hesitate to block 2015 funding for Homeland Security if Republicans try to tinker with his executive amnesty along the border, The Huffington Post reports. Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer said the president would “absolutely not” sign a 2015 spending bill if there are limits on the amnesty…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Customs and Border Protection overspent when it built houses for Border Patrol agents in Arizona, an inspector general’s report has found. The Associated Press reports that CBP spent nearly $700,000 per house in a town where the average home price is less than $90,000. The investigating found that CBP spent about…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The news keeps getting worse for a massive new headquarters for Homeland Security in Washington. The Washington Post reports that the project is now 11 years behind schedule, $1.5 billion over budget and may never be finished. The call for a new, centralized headquarters came in the aftermath of the Sept. 11,…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com FBI Director James Comey said the bureau plans to hire 1,000 people by Oct. 1 – a move meant to fill some of the 2,500 vacancies. “I’m looking to hire 1,000 people to start to fill those almost 2,500 vacancies that we have – hundreds of special agents and intelligence analysts to restock…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Budget cuts have forced Homeland Security to reduce the number of Federal Air Marshals whose job is to protect aircrafts from terrorists, CNN reports, citing internal emails. The department declined to say how many marshals the department has lost in the past three years. Critics blasted the department for its secrecy surrounding…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI and Justice Department have been losing employees and not replacing them because of budget cuts. But the Wall Street Journal reports that President Obama’s budget deal in late December would end the hiring freeze and fill positions again. The FBI plans to hire about 1,000 people. The Justice Department will…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com As the FBI’s Chicago office continues to make terrorism a top priority, the bureau is facing pressure to help quell violence in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reports. But Robert Holley, the special agent in charge in Chicago, said his office lacks the staff to adequately combat violent crime. In addition to terrorism,…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Hoping to avoid further cutbacks, the FBI Agents Association is showing its support for a bipartisan spending plan that would avoid more than $700 million in additional sequestration reductions, NPR reports. The plan, while not ideal for the cash-strapped agency, was announced Tuesday by GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Democratic…
