A major source of contention during debate on the administration's plan to consolidate twenty-six federal agencies into a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) centered on labor rights for DHS employees. Under President Bush's consolidation plan, labor rights-such as the right to unionize and negotiate collective bargaining agreements-would not be extended to many DHS employees. During debate on the DHS legislation, Congressman Shays (R-CT) proposed legislation which would grant DHS employees the right to unionize unless the president certified that the unionization would hurt homeland security. Progressives opposed Shays's amendment because, in their view, the president should not be allowed to revoke the labor rights of any federal employee. The language in the amendment, they worried, could be interpreted broadly by the administration to deny the labor rights of numerous DHS employees. The Shays measure was adopted on a 229-201 vote.