Congress this week is looking to put its own stamp on that plan, but wholesale changes to the FBI and CIA appear unlikely.
The president, at a news conference, contrasted progress on the Homeland Security Department with congressional delays on other White House priorities, including new money for defense and security and passage of a major trade bill.
Congress, he said, is moving "with speed and skill and a constructive spirit of bipartisan cooperation."
A flurry of congressional action this week starts in the House, where Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has given a dozen committees until Friday to vote on the various pieces of the homeland security legislation. These will go to a special select committee chaired by Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, which is responsible for assembling legislation for floor debate later this month.
The Senate is planning more committee hearings, with the Governmental Affairs panel chaired by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., scheduled to consider its version on July 24. Both houses of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, hope to send Bush a final bill in mid-September.
There was initially widespread criticism when Bush chose to leave the CIA and FBI untouched, given the intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 attacks. Yet most lawmakers are cool to the idea of rushing to incorporate them into the new agency, particularly with another congressional panel still investigating what happened last year.
One congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday that any proposal to transfer the CIA and FBI, or parts of them, is not going to happen as the new department is created. Instead, debate will probably focus on whether the new agency's Cabinet-level secretary will have enough access to intelligence data, including raw information, to better safeguard the nation against future attacks.
There will be no shortage of proposed changes to Bush's plan in several other areas, including the role of the Coast Guard, whether to keep certain agriculture programs within the Agriculture Department and whether State Department personnel should continue issuing visas in foreign countries.
Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House homeland security office, said the administration is willing to consider lawmakers' ideas but expects the final product to closely mirror what Bush has proposed.
"We're going to work with all the individual committees to get a good bill out," he said.
Any changes to Bush's plan could be short-lived, especially in the House where the select panel chaired by Armey has the authority to essentially ignore what other committees recommend. Whatever versions are initially passed by the House and Senate would have to be reconciled by a conference committee, where the White House can bring great pressure to bear.
Still, committees with jurisdiction over parts of the government to be transferred will get a chance to highlight issues that concern them. Some examples:
- Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House transportation committee, opposes moving the Coast Guard into the new agency out of fear that some of its tasks, such as fisheries management and navigational safety, will be given a lower priority. But a spokesman said it was unclear if there is enough support on the panel to keep the Coast Guard in the Transportation Department.
- Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., wants U.S. visas issued in foreign countries to be handled by the Homeland Security agency, taking the job away from the State Department. Another House committee, however, advocates leaving visa and consular duties as they are.
- Agriculture lobbying groups and many farm-state lawmakers oppose moving the entire Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service into the new agency. Support is building to keep many of its duties, such as eradication of the cotton boll weevil, within the Agriculture Department.
- House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., wants the new agency to include an overhauled Immigration and Naturalization Service. A bill passed earlier this year by the House splits the INS into separate divisions to handle enforcement and immigration services; White House officials express a willingness to adopt that bill into the new agency.
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