Why a Flexible Homeland Security Agency is Critical to Our National Defense September 25, 2002 1. After September 11, 2001, the Customs Service wanted to require its inspectors at the 301 ports of entry to wear radiation detection pagers to help detect attempts to import nuclear or radiological materials across our borders. The National Treasury Employees Union objected, saying that wearing the pagers should be voluntary, and sought to invoke collective bargaining over the issue, which would (under the best of circumstances) have taken at least a year to resolve. In the end the union backed down, and the Customs...