Bush Calls on the Senate to Pass Homeland Security
Thursday, August 15, 2002
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Against the backdrop of former presidents etched in stone on Mount Rushmore National Memorial, President Bush demanded that Congress give him the opportunity to govern the new Homeland Security Department without attaching bureaucratic strings.
"Standing here at Mt. Rushmore reminds us that a lot of people came before us to make sure we are free," Bush said. "We love the idea of honest political discourse, we like a free press We love freedom the enemy hates freedom."
Bush said that he and the secretary of the agency -- whoever that may be -- must not be hamstringed by rules that prevent a fast-acting mechanism required to respond to a series of quickly changing variables.
"I don't want our hands tied so we can't do the number one job you expect of us, which is to protect the homeland," Bush said. "I need to be able to shift resources without a time-consuming approval process. If you're trying to defend the homeland, if you need to act quickly in response to a threat, we need to be able to move resources.
"We are not trying to do away with congressional authority we are trying to have the capacity to compassionately respond to the needs of the American people. Unfortunately, the bill in the Senate right now won't let me do that," he added.
Congress is in the midst of negotiating a new Cabinet-level Homeland Security Department that would collapse 22 agencies into one centralized unit responsible for roughly 170,000 employees and a $38 billion budget.
While the Republican-led House has passed its version of the bill, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, a possible presidential contender in 2004, has led the Senate debate over which agencies should be transferred to the new department and whether the president should have the authority to hire, fire and transfer federal workers.
Democrats say by negotiating for labor authority to move unproductive workers out of the department, the president is casting aside the rights of federal workers.
"For the president to take that work that we're doing together -- about which we agree on more than 90 percent -- and introduce this effort to remove protections from workers who are transferred to the new department, it doesn't make any sense to me," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose Governmental Affairs Committee is currently weighing the bill, at the Iowa state fair Wednesday.
Bush said flexibility does not mean that DHS employees won't be able to unionize, collectively bargain or participate in other activities available to other federal workers.
Thursday was the president's second trip this year to South Dakota. In April, he attended a fund-raiser for Senate candidate John Thune and discussed the ethanol program with farmers that is part of the recently-signed, 10-year $180 billion farm bill.
This time around the president was hearing from farmers about the severe drought affecting their livelihood.
On Monday, the Department of Agriculture made $150 million available to three states for emergency feed. Farmers have said hay and other feed eaten by animals has been substandard because of the drought. Sixty-four of 66 South Dakota counties are eligible for emergency assistance.
Daschle and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D, who attended the president's speech, had scheduled an event later in the day to scold Bush for not doing enough to help farmers and for withholding emergency supplemental funding to fight terror.
On Wednesday, Bush said he would not release $5.1 billion in funding that had been approved for so-called terror related issues, but which also included billions in extra spending. Trying to rein in spending, the president said he would not spend $5 billion when only $1 billion went to fighting terrorism.
"They put in the fine print that said you spend all the $5 billion or you spend none of it," Bush explained. "For the sake of fiscal responsibility, I made the decision to spend none of the extra dollars."
The president also plugged his personal priorities for improving the economy mentioned during his economic forum earlier this week in Waco, Texas.
Focusing on increasing consumer confidence tailored to the farm community, Bush said trade negotiation -- including agricultural trade -- is key to a vibrant economy as is making tax cuts permanent, including the estate tax that opponents say unfairly punishes farm families.
Bush was greeted at Ellsworth Air Force Base outside of Rapid City by Gov. Bill Janklow, Rep. John Thune, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and Ellsworth AFB Commander Col. James Kowalski.
He spent about 30 minutes talking to some of the 400 military personnel awaiting his arrival.
"It was great to meet the commander in chief," said Capt. Todd Grant, a weapons systems officer. "I shook his hand and I told him I was proud to serve. He said he's proud to have me, sir."
Another one who greeted the president was Megan Nadding, 10, whose father, Maj. Todd Nadding, is a B1 pilot.
She shook the president's hand, spoke with him and said she would tell her friends, "I got to meet the president, actually up close."
Bush planned to return to his Texas ranch later in the day.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
foxnews.com |
