A House panel on Tuesday was to hear from lawmakers who are sponsoring similar plans and from officials at several of the 100 federal entities that would be transferred into the new Cabinet department.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card briefed a bipartisan group of senior House staffers privately Monday about the Bush plan.
Card acknowledged there would be short-term costs arising from the security consolidation, but he insisted there would not be significant longer-term increases in spending or personnel, according to a participant in the meeting. Card also repeatedly urged lawmakers to move the plan quickly, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee said the White House does not plan to request money for the new agency until fiscal year 2004 -- which begins on Oct. 1, 2003. A statement from Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said that could stall implementation of the plan.
Questions are also being raised by some Republicans and Democratic lawmakers about plans to have the new department sift through intelligence gathered by the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and others. Intelligence analysis will not improve unless the new department has more direct authority over these agencies, they said.
Seeking to allay these concerns, Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said Monday that the new department would provide a critical missing piece by synthesizing all the intelligence, checking it for threats and then acting on those threats.
"Basically, the department will be able to put together all of the pieces of the puzzle," Ridge told a National Association of Broadcasters meeting.
The House and Senate intelligence committees, meanwhile, were meeting behind closed doors again Tuesday to look into lapses in intelligence sharing by U.S. officials prior to Sept. 11. They were to hear from their first outside witness, Richard A. Clarke, President Bush's adviser on cyberspace security. Clarke was President Clinton's coordinator of anti-terrorism efforts.
Another flash point over Bush's Homeland Security Department plan is his proposal to move the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the new agency from the Justice Department.
Some lawmakers object to combining the agency's duty to process legitimate immigrant visas with the job of border control under "homeland security," Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said, adding that "it could send the wrong message, that it's anti-immigrant or something."
Plans to move the Secret Service out of the Treasury Department present more problems. The agency is best known for protecting the president and other top administration officials, but it also investigates counterfeiting, credit card fraud and Internet fraud.
Other differences between Bush's proposal and bills already before the House and Senate:
- Several bills would create a White House anti-terrorism office with an overall job of coordinating intelligence, defense and law enforcement for the president. Bush would keep the office occupied by Ridge as it is.
- The president envisions an entire division devoted to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear countermeasures with elements drawn from national laboratories, health agencies and others. The congressional measures do not have this division.
- Under Bush's proposal, the new department would include the just-created transportation Security Administration, which handles most air travel security issues.
House and Senate leaders also are trying to get ahead of expected jurisdiction battles in Congress that could slow down the bill, which touches 88 congressional committees or subcommittees.
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