Feds blocked from person of interest after San Bernardino attack, lawmakers told

[Gadfly]

But consolidating all those agencies under one Department will lead to significant improvements in efficiency!

When the INS was single department, you had some what more efficient transfer of information, BUT, depending on which month it was, we had to divert budget from enforcement to services. When we arrest folks, we have to pay for feeding and housing and transporting them back overseas. When you give them a card, its much cheaper. Soooo, what are the Directors priorities this month? Budget shortfalls? Stop arresting...

The Ideal behind splitting the agency and having enforcement with ICE/HSI, and services with CIS, was to streamline the missions without conflict. And it is separate, AND still filled with conflicting missions. Gotta love working for the "G".

[JV_]

They're efficient at being inefficient.

[HCM]

When the INS was single department, you had some what more efficient transfer of information, BUT, depending on which month it was, we had to divert budget from enforcement to services. When we arrest folks, we have to pay for feeding and housing and transporting them back overseas. When you give them a card, its much cheaper. Soooo, what are the Directors priorities this month? Budget shortfalls? Stop arresting...

The Ideal behind splitting the agency and having enforcement with ICE/HSI, and services with CIS, was to streamline the missions without conflict. And it is separate, AND still filled with conflicting missions. Gotta love working for the "G".

Plus in the old INS days, your senior manager (District. Director or OIC) could be a former BP Agent, SA etc or they could be someone who spent their entire career in adjudications. So you sometimes had someone with no LE experience supervising enforcement.

[NEPAKevin]

It's been my experience that the booger eating morons move up the chain considerably faster.

FWIW, when I was briefly a federal employee, this is not an uncommon practice as terminating a BEM is an arduous task, while promoting one out of your section takes the path of least resistance. Things may have changed, but I doubt it.

ETA: promoting may not be the right term. The basic concept is you have two guys apply for a better paying job and the bosses would give the hard worker a positive recommendation while the slacker would get a more positive recommendation. Win-win for the bosses.

[JV_]

Things may have changed, but I doubt it.

Nope, they haven't.

Up is always easier than out. Sometimes you go up and over to some "project" no one knows or cares about, all you do is keep a seat warm (and hope you just upped your high-3).

[Hambo]

I'd have to disagree. I think the booger-eating moron has a better shot since the exceptional folks working in the biz often career-limit themselves by being the one dude/dudette in the room with balls and brains enough to stand up and tell the rest of the group thinkers why their idea is completely retarded, probably illegal, and is likely to get somebody killed who doesn't need to be. They may succeed at stopping the stupidity but get "not a team player" stamped on their forehead while the bobble-heads in the room get bumped up the chain.

But that's just my opinion.

Got it in one.

[Gadfly]

Up is always easier than out. Sometimes you go up and over to some "project" no one knows or cares about, all you do is keep a seat warm (and hope you just upped your high-3).

The say "you have to f--k up to move up" in government.

We had a Supervisor screw up an operation, bad. A budget of $1 million pissed away bad. A projected 600 arrest operation that netted 23... She went from being a supervisor in Texas to a RAC in Idaho...

I hear it went something like:
"Congratulations, your in charge of -------, Idaho!"
"But, I like it here in Texas"
"Congratulations, you start in Idaho next month!"
"But....I don't know anyone in Idaho."
"You don't understand, con-grat-u-la-tions, pack your shit, you are promoted..."

There was nothing major to be screwed up where she went.

I will never be promoted to management, not because I have not screwed up. I have. But my screw ups are minor, not major.

[Trooper224]

FWIW, when I was briefly a federal employee, this is not an uncommon practice as terminating a BEM is an arduous task, while promoting one out of your section takes the path of least resistance. Things may have changed, but I doubt it.

ETA: promoting may not be the right term. The basic concept is you have two guys apply for a better paying job and the bosses would give the hard worker a positive recommendation while the slacker would get a more positive recommendation. Win-win for the bosses.

It's exactly the same at the state level. Long ago I chose not to pursue promotion, mainly because I have too much self respect. I've also told too many Lieutenants and Captains things like, "You're a f***ing idiot." , so I think it's out of my hands. I once told my current Captain, soon after his promotion, when he arrived on scene at an incident while off duty, "You're not getting paid to be the Captain right now so why don't you get the f*** out of here." He wanted me suspended for three days, but HQ gave me a one day suspension and tacked it onto a weekend off. I took that to mean, "We agree but we have to do something." In the end it was worth it. I got a long weekend and one more story to enhance my already legendary reputation.

[Zhurdan]

It's been my experience that the booger eating morons move up the chain considerably faster.

Promoted out of areas of real responsibility? I'd agree. An example of the stupid amount of non-essential positions that make a metric crap ton more than most people probably know.

[GardoneVT]

The say "you have to f--k up to move up" in government.

We had a Supervisor screw up an operation, bad. A budget of $1 million pissed away bad. A projected 600 arrest operation that netted 23... She went from being a supervisor in Texas to a RAC in Idaho...

I hear it went something like:
"Congratulations, your in charge of -------, Idaho!"
"But, I like it here in Texas"
"Congratulations, you start in Idaho next month!"
"But....I don't know anyone in Idaho."
"You don't understand, con-grat-u-la-tions, pack your shit, you are promoted..."

There was nothing major to be screwed up where she went.

I will never be promoted to management, not because I have not screwed up. I have. But my screw ups are minor, not major.

When a senior Air Force Officer blows it but can't be canned for the fail, their next billet is typically " Special Assistant To Organization X".