The House was taking the first steps Wednesday by authorizing a select, nine-member committee of senior lawmakers to shepherd the legislation through and head off jurisdictional squabbling. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, will be the committee's chairman.
The White House accelerated things Tuesday by sending its detailed legislative proposal to Capitol Hill earlier than expected. Democrats and Republicans are aiming for passage by fall, perhaps as early as Sept. 11.
Bush said the new agency would form an "organizational foundation for America's triumph in a long and difficult struggle" with what he called the permanent condition of terrorist threats against America. Bush compared it to President Truman's 1947 consolidation of the military into a single Defense Department to fight the Cold War against the Soviet Union.
"Today, our nation must once again reorganize our government to protect against an often-invisible enemy, an enemy that hides in the shadows and an enemy that can strike with many different types of weapons," Bush said in a written statement.
Although there appears to be no stopping the bill, many questions remain about how the new agency would function. Leading the list is the president's decision to keep the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies out of the Homeland Security Department, which would still be responsible for analyzing intelligence data.
The legislation expressly provides that the new Homeland Security secretary "shall have access" to all intelligence about terrorism, threats and U.S. vulnerabilities.
Lawmakers renewed their promises of support and quick action on a bill that would transfer about 100 federal entities into a single Cabinet agency with an annual budget of over $37 billion and about 170,000 employees.
The measure was immediately referred to nine House committees and one in the Senate. Given the complexity of the task, several lawmakers said a more realistic date for passage may be when Congress adjourns in October.
"We're not going to put haste in the way of doing it right," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., also sounded a cautionary note, saying that safeguarding Americans from terrorism on U.S. soil would take more than shuffling agencies and creating a new federal nameplate. Many Democrats say the administration must follow up with additional money and resources.
"This provides us the tool to get the job done," Daschle said. "It doesn't do the job."
Labor unions renewed their criticism of management-flexibility provisions they said could threaten compensation, benefits and other employee rights in the new department.
"This step threatens the rights of the very people the nation is depending on to make it more secure," said Colleen M. Kelly, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 12,000 Customs workers slated to be moved.
The bill was modified from the initial proposal announced June 6 to address concerns raised by lawmakers and FBI Director Robert Mueller, officials said. Key changes include:
-- The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California would not entirely become part of the new agency, as initially suggested. A facility based there and at other national labs, including Sandia and Los Alamos, would handle science and technology issues related to homeland security.
- The FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, which protects online commerce and the Internet against attacks, would still be transferred, but its agents who investigate crimes would remain within the Justice Department.
- A small office in the National Institute of Science and Technology that figures out encryption, computer security system prototypes and the like would be transferred to the new agency.
- Specialized courts involved with the Coast Guard and the Immigration and Naturalization Service would be moved into Homeland Security.
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