In light of the recent controversial USCIS 19-page January 8, 2010 memo where USCIS takes a very strident and restrictive position on staffing agencies as employer/petitioners, we find it particularly disconcerting to learn that there are 200,000 contract employees working at the DHS, more than the 188,000 “civilian” workforce.

In a letter sent to the agency’s Secretary Janet Napolitano, Lieberman and Collins said the figure “raises the question of whether DHS itself is in charge of its programs and policies, or whether it inappropriately has ceded core decisions to contractors.”

Napolitano is slated to appear before the Senate committee and is expected to face questions on the subject. The senators want a unit-by-unit breakdown of where in Homeland Security the contractors are working and have asked for assurances that contractors are not performing “inherently governmental work.”

Clark Stevens, a spokesman for Homeland Security, told CNN Tuesday that “Secretary Napolitano has been strongly committed to decreasing the department’s reliance on contractors and strengthening the federal work force” at Homeland Security.

“Over the past year, we have been actively converting contractor positions to government positions and will continue to build on these efforts at an even more aggressive pace this year. We are working across the department to identify and make additional conversions as quickly as possible while sustaining the work force required to carry out our critical mission,” Stevens said.

How ironic could this possibly be?!  We will keep you posted.  For the story on CNN