Former Secret Service Director Julia Pierson was a dedicated professional who was a victim of an agency mired in bureaucracy, Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican, said Thursday on
“America’s Forum.”
“Julia is a little bit of a victim of an agency that's mired in bureaucracy, not unlike many other bureaucracies,” said Mica, who sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
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“We just had this VA scandal and when we got through with that, we found that the VA people were not performing, not doing their job. Pierson has only been in office for a year, she came to Congress and asked for the tools to get the agency under control, some of them were to upgrade the quality of the people that they were hiring to have better management allow flexibility in management positions and to hire and fire and Congress has still sat on that request and it's mired in approval for homeland security. She's the victim of not being able to
get the job done she was put in place for.”
Democrats sat on Pierson’s requests and instead forced her stick with laws “dating back to the 19th century of political patronage,” he said.
He pointed out that the Secret Service is sorely lacking resources, citing a 2011 incident in which a White House housekeeper found broken glass that led to the realization that someone fired bullets into President Barack Obama's residence. It took four days to make the discovery.
“Many Americans have home security systems, like ADT,” he said. “I have a window broken at my house, you'd know instantly, not four days later.”
The next director should not be a political patronage appointment by the president, Mica said, asserting that it must be someone who is not afraid to make bold changes.
“They have to be given the tools,” he said. “People don't perform in the private sector, you get our butt fired. In government, you may get a promotion and you certainly get to stay and you're not held accountable. That system doesn't work.”
The challenge, he added, is “giving the tools, getting the agency cleaned up, getting the ability to hire, fire and upgrade the human personnel.”
Mica
rebuked the criticism being piled on Pierson, instead blaming the system.
“I thought Pierson had excellent credentials,” he noted. “She went in, but her hands were tied. She wasn't able to hire and fire. She wasn't able to keep people in management positions and people were being promoted who were incompetent. She wasn't able to raise the standard of the agency. They pummeled her this week and she paid a price for it.”
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