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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8545-2002Jun6.html
Bush Seeks Security Department
Cabinet-Level Agency Would Coordinate Anti-Terrorism Effort
By Mike Allen and Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 7, 2002; Page A01
President Bush, outlining the most ambitious reorganization of the government's
national security structure in a half-century, urged Congress last night to create a
Department of Homeland Security to coordinate intelligence about terrorism and tighten
the nation's domestic defenses.
The department would absorb a huge swath of the executive branch, including all of the
Coast Guard, Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Immigration and
Naturalization Service and Customs Service, as well as the new agency in charge of
airport security, the Transportation Security Administration. Only the Pentagon and
the Department of Veterans Affairs would have more employees.
"As we have learned more about the plans and capabilities of the terrorist network, we
have concluded that our government must be reorganized to deal more effectively with
the new threats of the 21st century," Bush said from the White House in remarks
carried live in prime time on commercial networks.
With the proposal to create another Cabinet department, Bush embraced an idea he had
long resisted. In the frantic days after Sept. 11, Bush established a small Office of
Homeland Security within the White House and named Tom Ridge, then Pennsylvania's
governor, as its director.
But officials concluded that this structure was unworkable because Ridge did not have
clear authority over the agencies charged with homeland protection.
In presenting his new plan last night, Bush navigated between trying to reassure
Americans about the government's efforts to protect them over the past nine months and
building the case for major change.
"Based on everything I've seen, I do not believe anyone could have prevented the
horror of September the 11th," Bush said. "Yet we now know that thousands of trained
killers are plotting to attack us, and this terrible knowledge requires us to act
differently."
Bush's 13-minute speech came days after Congress opened hearings to examine
intelligence failures before the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Democrats said the timing suggested a massive effort to control damage to the White
House following revelations about lack of communication among intelligence officials
before Sept. 11. And it came hours after Coleen Rowley, the FBI whistle-blower from
Minneapolis who accuses the agency of mishandling warnings, testified before a
televised hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bush, under pressure from Congress to show the administration will be better prepared
to prevent and respond to terrorists' strikes, called his plan the largest overhaul of
the government since 1947, when President Harry S. Truman combined the War and Navy
departments into a new Defense Department. Experts called that a bit of an
overstatement, pointing to ambitious restructuring proposals by presidents Richard M.
Nixon and Bill Clinton.
The department was planned in secret by a small group of White House officials led by
Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., with Ridge's help. Many of the officials who would
lose substantial power under the plan did not learn about it until yesterday.
Administration officials said the announcement was scheduled hurriedly, as support
built on Capitol Hill for Democratic proposals for such a department.
Ridge, a close friend of Bush's with his desk near the Oval Office, was considered
weak by Capitol Hill and the bureaucracy because he had no control over budgets for
the agencies he was supposed to coordinate. He became a late-night talk show punch
line for his best-known accomplishment -- the creation of a color-coded warning system.
In a conspicuous omission, Bush did not say who he wanted to lead the department,
although several senior officials said they believed it would be Ridge. Ridge has not
said publicly whether he wants the job. Bush plans to retain a separate homeland
security adviser, not accountable to Congress, under the new structure.
Reaction from Capitol Hill was largely positive, with Republican leaders promising to
work toward passage of the reorganization. Democrats generally embraced the plan and
some even took credit for it, although some critics said the department would be
unwieldy and would have the effect of combining dysfunctional agencies.
Some lawmakers questioned the need for so much secrecy about such an important plan.
"I'm concerned that Congress was not consulted," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy
(D-Mass.), who has done much recent work on border issues. "This proposal could have
benefited from the great expertise and significant work already underway in Congress
to create a new Cabinet agency responsible for closing intelligence gaps, increasing
information-sharing and improving border security."
Ridge outlined the proposal to more than 50 governors, homeland security directors and
mayors in conference calls yesterday. Those participating in the calls said he got a
good reception from officials who have been clamoring for months about the need for
better coordination and a single place to turn to for grants for their own efforts.
The Homeland Security Department would be the first new Cabinet agency since the
Veterans Affairs Department was created in 1989. Administration officials said it
would eventually have its own building. Bush wants to combine workers from eight
departments into his creation, from the Agriculture Department agents who check fruit
at the border to scientists working in Energy Department laboratories.
The proposal, which Bush wants passed in time for the department to open Jan. 1, with
the director confirmed by the Senate, answers persistent calls from Congress for more
oversight of this new focus of the government. It also is intended to help remedy
bureaucratic overlapping that was hampering the protection of 350 official ports of
entry.
The administration said the department would add no employees or expenses to the
government, but would take over 169,000 employees and $37.4 billion from existing
agencies. It would have four divisions, responsible for controlling borders and
keeping out terrorists and explosives; working with state and local authorities to
prepare for emergencies; developing technologies to detect chemical, biological, and
nuclear weapons, and to treat those who are exposed; and analyzing intelligence and
law enforcement information.
The FBI and CIA are to keep their current functions, but the department would have an
"intelligence and threat analysis" unit to combine intelligence from those agencies
and others to assess threats, take preventive action and issue public warnings. White
House officials described the unit as "a customer" of the FBI and CIA, which have been
historically reluctant to share information with each other, let alone a third entity.
"This new department will review intelligence and law enforcement information from all
agencies of government and produce a single daily picture of threats against our
homeland," Bush said. "Analysts will be responsible for imagining the worst and
planing to counter it."
Administration officials said the department would allow officials assessing threats
to talk directly to counterparts who are responsible for the security of nuclear,
chemical and wastewater treatment plans, and other critical parts of the nation's
infrastructure.
Bush's plan is so broad that it is likely to ignite months of turf battles. The White
House said 88 congressional committees and subcommittees have jurisdiction over
elements of homeland security, and the department incorporate parts of the departments
of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice, State,
Transportation and Treasury.
Bush's plan went far beyond the proposals by several lawmakers to give Ridge more
authority by creating a Cabinet-level department. The Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee, chaired by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), voted along party lines last
month to create a Homeland Security Department. A national security official said the
White House had concluded in recent weeks that the Lieberman bill "was gaining
traction, and the worst of all worlds was that it would be passed by veto-proof
majorities with the president in a reactive position."
Ridge and other administration officials had begun to indicate their openness to
changes as support built for them on Capitol Hill. Ridge was to deliver his homeland
security strategy in July, and Card began examining alternatives to the current
homeland security apparatus in April.
Lieberman praised Bush's plan, but said he expects "opposition from the bureaucracies
that are being put under the new secretary of homeland security and from members of
Congress who are close to those bureaucracies."
Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), the Appropriations Committee Chairman, had repeatedly
demanded that Ridge testify before his committee about spending on homeland defenses.
The White House had refused on the grounds that Ridge was a presidential adviser, who
traditionally are shielded from calls for formal testimony.
Byrd renewed his complaint about "stubborn stonewalling" but endorsed the proposal.
"It is about time, and I hope that it is not too late," he said.
One of the few critics was Rep. David R. Obey (Wis.), ranking Democrat on the House
Appropriations Committee, who said the plan might prove unworkable. "These kind of
slapdash plans often are diversions," he said. Obey's office also issued a statement
saying the plan loads the department down with responsibilities that have nothing to
do with preventing terrorism, including oil spills, currency fraud and mad-cow disease.
An aide to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said the plan would force Congress
to revamp its lines of authority for funding and oversight of civil defense. "You
can't have this sort of profound change in the agencies without profound changes in
the Congress as well," the aide said.
Bush's plan for improving homeland security dates to May 8, 2001, when he directed
Vice President Cheney to coordinate the nation's protection from weapons of mass
destruction. During Bush's address to Congress on Sept. 20, he announced Ridge's
appointment to head the new office, and Ridge was sworn in Oct. 8.
Such ideas have been studied for years. Early last year, a panel led by former
senators Gary Hart (D-Colo.) and Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), recommended a National
Homeland Security Agency, but that entity would not have approached the size or reach
of the department Bush proposes.
� 2002 The Washington Post Company
======================================================
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man
who is able to think things out for himself, without regard
to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably
he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under
is dishonest, insane, and intolerable."
-H.L. Mencken
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