Can 85% of an Agency be Essential?

Part of the debate over funding of the Department of Homeland Security has revealed that 85% of Homeland  employees are considered essential and have to work, whether funding is there or not.  Having been a government employee I was always surprised to hear who was essential and who not when parts of government are shut down for brief periods.  We played this game only rarely, but once is enough for most people who don't get a paycheck during those intervals.  

I heard part of Jey Johnson's political speech yesterday, complete with a 50 or so people standing behind him on the platform, saying his people were so critical to the national security of the U.S.  Some certainly are important, but not 85% of the workforce.  No agency can claim 85% of its force is essential.  They haven't looked very closely at the composition of that workforce if they are saying that. 

DHS has more managers than any place I ever worked.  They can't all be essential.  They have more privacy advocates than any body of its size has ever had.  They had a raft of people who did oversight and management of functions I never heard of before coming there.  They had contractors doing most of the heavy lifting at Headquarters.  Maybe in Customs & Border Patrol, TSA,  and Secret Service more than most other agency personnel are essential, but even in those the 85% number seems excessive.  Outside of those, the numbers are certainly in need of review.  

You can read about how OPM decides who is essentijal at [ https://www.opm.gov/about-us/open-government/about-open-gov/opm-plan-for-the-suspension-of-operations-in-the-absence-of-appropriations.pdf ]  One of OPM's functions is to help people decide who might be essential, so many of the positions that are essential only because they help others make informed decisions.  Apparently, nobody from Homeland has contacted them yet.  

This is another manufactured crisis, made to look worse than it is for political purposes.  Yesterday we had the terrorist mall threat doing the same thing.  Put enough people together in a large agency and they have plently of time to invent these kinds of ploys and get them out to the press.  The people doing that are certainly not essential.  Start the review with them.