Congress Blasts 'Outrageous' Security Breaches at Nation's Federal Buildings

Members of Congress on Wednesday blasted "disturbing" and "outrageous" security failures in the nation's federal buildings after government investigators smuggled bomb-making materials past the police agency charged with protecting those buildings. The Government Accountability Office released a report detailing how investigators carried liquid bomb-making materials past security at 10 federal buildings in 10 cities -- a shocking exposure lawmakers said shows the country's vulnerability eight years after the attacks on the World Trade Center and 14 years after the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City. The undisclosed buildings at the center of the probe were all labeled "Security Level IV," or high-risk. The GAO found other problems with guard training and reported that in one check of security, investigators found a guard asleep on the job after taking the painkiller Percocet. In another, they found that a guard failed to recognize or did not properly X-ray a box carrying handguns at the loading dock of a facility. Gary Schenkel, director of the Federal Protective Service, said in prepared testimony that when he arrived at the agency in April 2007 "it was apparent FPS was experiencing some serious challenges." Earlier government investigations have raised similar concerns about the quality of security provided to federal buildings. FPS currently has a budget of about $1 billion, 1,200 full-time employees and about 13,000 contract security guards...FoxNews

FPS - Federal Protective Service, former local and private sector employees "federalized" compliments of George W. Bush.