The Homeland Security Department must reduce its reliance on contractors doing inherently governmental work, senators told Secretary Janet Napolitano last week.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she is concerned that too many contractors are being used, and she asked Napolitano for a count.

"We'll work to relook at how many contractors are being used compared to full-time employees. When the department was being put up, we had to use contractors to do basic missions, but I don't know a ballpark on how many contractors there are," Napolitano told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

McCaskill questioned whether DHS is asking for enough money to staff up if it doesn't know how many contractors it relies upon.

"Is it like the secret growth of government that we don't have to own up to the fact that government's size has blown up because we have all of these contractors?" she asked.

"DHS must develop internal capacity for its own programs," Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, added.

Napolitano said she didn't have figures for how many jobs would be insourced — that is, contracted work that is brought in house and done by department employees. Those figures will be reflected in the 2011 budget, "when we drill down in our departments and figure out what has been contracted out," she said.

Napolitano also said the department is preparing to consolidate its headquarters staff in anticipation of moving into a new headquarters complex in Southeast Washington over the next eight years.

Having a headquarters will help unify staff, she said.

"I think you can appreciate how difficult it is to plan when everyone is so spread out," she said.

McCaskill asked about morale among senior employees and questioned why members of the Senior Executive Service who left DHS weren't given exit interviews. Napolitano acknowledged that better administrative procedures are needed.

The proposed fiscal 2010 budget includes $42.7 billion in discretionary spending, a 6 percent increase over this year.

Tell us what you think. E-mail REBECCA NEAL.