Washington ? Increasing pressure on the Senate in the battle over worker rights in the Homeland Security Department, President Bush said Thursday that “the enemy doesn’t care about these rules” favored by many Democrats.

“They want there to be a lot of rules and regulations and I’m not going to accept that,” Bush said at a Republican fund-raiser in Houston.

While softening his tone, Bush said the kind of union protections supported by the Democratic-controlled Senate already are hampering the administration’s homeland security efforts.

Bush said government union leaders are preventing the Customs Service from getting emergency contact numbers from workers because of privacy concerns; making it difficult to require port inspectors to carry radiation detectors; and requiring that customs inspectors being sent to sensitive jobs overseas be chosen solely by seniority instead of by their qualifications.

“The enemy doesn’t care about these rules. The Senate does and it bothers me,” Bush said. “Don’t get me wrong. There’s fine senators from both parties who care deeply about our country. But it is essential, for the sake of protecting America, that we not allow special interests to drive the process.”

The president’s remarks came as others in the White House and congressional Republicans said proposed compromise legislation would eliminate powers that presidents have had since the Carter administration.

The stalemate over labor rights is blocking a decisive Senate vote on a bill that would merge 22 agencies and transfer 170,000 employees, including 43,000 covered by union agreements, into a new Cabinet department tasked with protecting Americans from terrorism at home.