"It's very important for ... the Senate to confirm Tom as quickly as possible and to confirm his team so they can get doing the work of the American people," Bush told reporters a day earlier after the year's first meeting of his Cabinet.
Bush also sent to Capitol Hill his nomination of Navy Secretary Gordon England, a former General Dynamics Corp. vice president, to be Ridge's deputy at the new domestic protection agency. That move was widely expected.
Bush signed legislation Nov. 25 creating the department. The agency will begin taking shape quickly -- with the Secret Service, Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service and other agencies folding employees and budgets into the new Cabinet department by March 1.
A White House blueprint calls for the department to be fully operational by Sept. 30, with 170,000 workers.
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