Bush was traveling to Missouri on Tuesday to showcase two pieces of the department -- including one of the more embattled -- that would provide new protections, said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
A threat-analysis unit, envisioned as part of Bush's proposed intelligence-analyzing division, would study the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure such as water, road and financial systems. A coordinating office would provide a one-stop contact for local and private-sector officials on homeland security decisions.
Before leaving the White House, Bush was meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on his far-reaching plan to gather 100 federal entities into a single Cabinet department.
The proposal to have the Department of Homeland Security analyze intelligence from the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and others, but without any direct authority over the gathering of the information, has attracted criticism from lawmakers, who must approve the plan.
In a speech at Oak Park High School in Kansas City, Bush was to argue the value of putting the people evaluating threats side-by-side with those deciding how to respond -- a piece missing up to now.
"This really is a synthesis of the two for the first time," Johndroe said.
The administration has said that creating the new department would not increase the size or cost of government. Johndroe said the threat-assessment unit would merely combine $364 million worth of functions from other agencies, and did not have a budget estimate for the new coordinating office.
Bush is expected to make several stops around the nation in the coming weeks and months to illustrate specifically how the new agency would make Americans safer, Johndroe said.
The president's homeland security adviser, Tom Ridge, previewed the strategy in a speech Monday to the National Association of Broadcasters.
"Homeland security is not an inside-the-Beltway story," he said. "It encompasses the air we breathe -- all Americans breathe -- the food we eat, the water we drink, the energy we use, critical infrastructure everywhere. If affects us every time we board a plane or visit the office or log on to our computers."
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