New Security Agency Faces Array of Hurdles
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 10, 2002; Page A01
To hear President Bush tell it, the new Department of Homeland Security will improve government's "focus and effectiveness," but the confusion attending many aspects of his proposal suggests that government may be headed for a prolonged period of bureaucratic chaos before things are sorted out.
Late last week Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman wondered whether she could "define the parameters of legislation" so that Congress would not transfer all of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to the new department. The agency does research on plant and animal pathogens, a key concern in biological warfare defense, but it also enforces the Animal Welfare Act to make sure pet store owners aren't abusing their charges.
Other changes -- some of them even more radical -- do not appear to have been carefully thought out, critics say. They say virtually all of the changes risk serious unintended and probably unwelcome consequences, and could provoke ill will between Homeland Security and existing departments.
The plan calls for the Department of Homeland Security to grab several entire agencies besides the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. These include the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Customs Service, the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In this endeavor, the new department can count on taking on a lot more than it may want. Homeland Security will be rescuing drunken boaters in heavy surf, airlifting blankets to flood victims in Iowa, confiscating stolen antiquities smuggled from Cambodia and inducing counterfeiters to sell their product to undercover cops.
For every aspect of the big reshuffle, knowledgeable officials expressed both a wish that the new department succeed and misgivings that the bureaucratic hurdles might be so difficult to overcome that the move might end up crippling homeland security and agencies' regular business........
washingtonpost.com
Perhaps people will eventually figure out that the reorganization isn't about providing better security; it's about PR. Create the illusion that you're providing better security. Declare the largest reorganization of government in 50 years; it's 'historic'. Whether it's better or worse, isn't all that significant; you can manage the PR on that by a simple end of the year [or just prior to the 2004 election] 'report card' that gives the new cabinet grades of all 'green' cross the board.
jttmab |
