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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (265022)	6/18/2002 2:37:02 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Congress Gets Bush's Homeland Security Plan Tue Jun 18, 1:28 PM ET By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House delivered to a receptive Congress on Tuesday a bill to establish President Bush ( news - web sites)'s proposed Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security to coordinate the nation's war on terrorism. Democratic and Republican leaders promised to work together to pass such legislation quickly so Bush could sign it into law, possibly by the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. "As history has shown, when the Congress of the United States works with the president of the United States, no challenge is too great ... whether it's winning a world war, a Cold War or a war on terrorism," said Tom Ridge, director of Bush's White House Office of Homeland Security. In joining fellow congressional leaders in accepting the president's measure from Ridge, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said, "This is a small bill, but a big task." "It's going to take strong and real bipartisanship," said Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, promising to help deliver such an effort. "We will get this job done right," vowed House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican. In what would be the biggest reorganization of the federal government in half a century, Bush wants to fold into the new department all or parts of 22 existing federal agencies -- including the Secret Service ( news - web sites), Coast Guard, Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service. The CIA ( news - web sites) and FBI ( news - web sites) would be left basically unchanged, prompting critics to complain the new department would fail to correct a key problem exposed by the Sept. 11 attacks -- repeated failures by the two agencies to share information. The administration has said the new department would address the matter by serving as a clearinghouse for information from the FBI, CIA and other intelligence agencies. A number of lawmakers, Democrats as well as Republicans, have said that may not be enough and that other possibilities must be explored. 'ALL POSSIBILITIES WILL BE LOOKED AT' "We need to get the FBI and CIA to work better together," House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, said on Tuesday. "I think all possibilities will be looked at," said Gephardt, including putting the two agencies, or part of them, in the new department. In bringing the measure to Capitol Hill, Ridge provided more details about the president's proposal, first announced two weeks ago after months of calls on Capitol Hill, most of them from Democrats, to establish such a department. Ridge left unanswered a major question: Would he want to head the sprawling new department or stay put at the White House Office of Homeland Security as a presidential adviser? Bush is believed to favor Ridge, a personal friend who last year stepped down as Pennsylvania governor to become the first director of the White House Office of Homeland Security, to head the new department. With Ridge silent, at least publicly, about whether he would want the job, a number of names have surfaced on Capitol Hill as possible secretaries of the department. They include former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani ( news - web sites); Joe Allbaugh, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( news - web sites); former Secretary of State James Baker and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Ridge is to return to Capitol Hill on Thursday to testify about the president's plan to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee ( news - web sites) and the House Government Reform Committee ( news - web sites). story.news.yahoo.com