Steve Quayle News Alerts

June 18, 2002

WASHINGTON, — President Bush’s homeland security director, Tom Ridge, presented Congress with the administration’s legislative blueprint Tuesday for the new domestic security agency it wants to create. Even before the first draft was in lawmakers’ hands, pressure was building to fold at least some of the FBI and the CIA into the new department, which could have its headquarters outside Washington for security reasons.

“AS HISTORY has shown, when the Congress of the United States and the president of the United States unite, no challenge is too great, no cause is out of reach, no dream is impossible, whether it’s winning a world war, a Cold War or the war on terrorism,” said Ridge, flanked by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and other leaders.

The proposal, which was completed in a rush over the weekend by White House aides hoping to meet a stepped-up timetable to create the new agency by the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, would entail the most extensive restructuring of the federal government in more than 50 years if it is enacted.

Ridge called the creation of the Department of Homeland Security “the next critical step” necessary to ensure that Americans were protected from terrorists. The proposal calls for combining 100 federal entities — including the Secret Service, the Coast Guard and the embattled immigration and customs services — and almost 170,000 employees into a single Cabinet-level agency with a $37.4 billion budget.

Despite the bipartisan unity, there were a few cautionary notes. Daschle, for one, said that creation of a Homeland Security Department by itself “doesn’t do the job” and that Congress and the administration would have to do much more to safeguard Americans at home.

“This is a means to that end, not the end,” he said.

Bush said in a statement that the proposal sought to transform “the current confusing patchwork of government activities into a single department whose primary mission is to secure our homeland.” The president planned to meet later Tuesday at the White House with congressional leaders as aides fanned out across the Capitol to press for support.

FUTURE OF FBI, CIA
Ridge said the bill had been modified to address some initial concerns by removing Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, an Energy Department research center in California, from the new agency’s structure and by keeping an FBI computer crime investigative unit out, as well.

Keeping the FBI within the Justice Department is a key goal of the administration. Lawmakers are expected to question Ridge when he visits Capitol Hill this week on why Bush did not include the FBI and the CIA in his proposed new department.

“The president was not looking to create a mammoth internal security division,” Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Office, said Monday.

“And while the FBI reorganization changes much of its mission to homeland security, it still has numerous responsibilities in its law enforcement capacity, and the attorney general remains and should remain the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.”

Ridge did not say whether the new agency should have control of some intelligence-gathering duties performed by the FBI and the CIA.

As outlined by administration officials, the CIA and the FBI would be required to submit intelligence information to the new department for analysis, but otherwise they would continue to function as independent agencies.

In advance of Ridge’s presentation and his scheduled testimony Thursday before House and Senate committees, an administration official told The Associated Press that Ridge and other White House officials would argue that the FBI must be overseen by the Justice Department, because of its familiarity with civil rights law.

Administration officials are also concerned that the FBI and the CIA should not be placed in a neophyte Cabinet department certain to have some start-up problems, officials said.

But some lawmakers already have said they support moving the FBI to the new department.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who is expected to be the chairman of Senate hearings on the Homeland Security Department, has indicated that he will offer a homeland security bill similar to Bush’s but differing sharply on the sharing and analysis of intelligence. Not all of the differences have been detailed, but Lieberman intends to push for part of the FBI to be put under the department’s purview, according to an aide who spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Lieberman plans to call FBI Director Robert Mueller to testify in coming weeks, the aide said.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said he believed the matter of how the FBI and Homeland Security Department work together should be the subject of a long inquiry. Last week, he said the FBI should be “more formally” involved with homeland security.

“The new department will be one of the FBI and CIA’s customers, but how to do that will be an important policy consideration,” said Terry Holt, a spokesman for Armey.

The FBI has consistently declined to comment on the question.

FAST TRACK PLANNED
The detailed proposal delivered by Ridge marked a departure from Bush’s usual practice of providing only outlines of his principles when he wants something from Congress. The White House determined this proposal was so big and complex that many details needed to be fleshed out before it was delivered to lawmakers, a Bush adviser told the AP before the proposal was handed out.

One detail it did not address was where the new department would be based. A White House official said it could be housed outside the capital city to protect it against terrorist attacks.

“Issues about where the headquarters are and all that have not been resolved,” the official said in a briefing for reporters. “... I think the transition planning team is going to look at a whole range of options.”

To complete action on the legislation by the Sept. 11 goal, congressional leaders have said they hope to have initial versions passed before lawmakers leave for their August recess.

Action had begun on Capitol Hill even before the president’s proposal arrived.

On Monday, former leaders of the Customs Service, the Coast Guard and other agencies that probably will be affected told a House Government Reform subcommittee that those agencies should be kept intact even if they were moved.

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

• Border and Transportation Security
• Emergency Preparedness and Response
• Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Countermeasures
• Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection

President Bush is proposing a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security with a $37.4 billion budget. Under the proposal, the department would be organized into four broad divisions, plus the Secret Service and an office for coordination with state, local and private-sector efforts. Here are the divisions, with the agencies to be brought under their umbrellas and where those agencies are now.

* Immigration and Naturalization Service: (Justice Department) Regulates immigration, travel into the country and provides border security.
* Customs Service: (Treasury Department) Regulates importation of goods and combats smuggling.
* Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service: (Agriculture Department)Monitors and manages animal and plant pests and diseases.
* Coast Guard: (Transportation Department) Provides coastline and waterway security and rescues.
* Federal Protective Service: (General Services Administration) Works to keep federal buildings safe.
* Transportation Security Administration: (Transportation Department) Ensure security for nation’s transportation systems.
* Federal Emergency Management Agency: (Independent agency) Provides assistance before, during and after disasters
* Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear response assets: Various agencies and groups respond to specific disasters and threats.
* Domestic Emergency Support Team: (Interagency group) Interagency team responds to domestic terrorism.
* Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response: (Energy Department) Sets nuclear security policy and regulates handling of nuclear materials.
* Office for Domestic Preparedness: (Justice Department) Works with state and local jurisdictions to prepare for and respond to terrorism.
* National Domestic Preparedness Office: (FBI) Clearinghouse for information on weapons of mass destruction.
* Civilian biodefense research programs: (Health and Human Services Department) Oversees research into defenses against biological weapons.
* Plum Island Animal Disease Center: (Agriculture Department) Research and diagnosis to help stop foreign animal diseases.
* National Biowarfare Defense Analysis Center (new)
* Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office: (Commerce Department) Coordinates federal initiatives to protect U.S. infrastructure.
* Federal Computer Incident Response Center: (General Services Administration) Coordinates response and analysis of computer security threats for federal agencies.
* National Communications System: (Defense Department) Prepares for and coordinates communications in national emergencies.
* National Infrastructure Protection Center: (FBI) Assesses and coordinates response to threats to critical infrastructure.
* National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center: (Energy Department) Studies U.S. infrastructure systems for interdependence and vulnerabilities.

SOURCE: White House, MSNBC.com research

http://www.msnbc.com/news/762744.asp?0si=-