In the wake of widespread criticism of the US government's ability to prevent future terrorist attacks on American soil, President Bush recently proposed the creation of a new Cabinet level position to oversee domestic security. Under the President's plan, the Department of Homeland Security will replace the informal Office of Homeland Security that Bush established after September 11th with the objective to not only thwart terrorist attacks but also reduce the nation's vulnerability to terrorism and expedite recovery efforts in the event that an attack does occur.

Securing America
by Susan Hollis

By initiating this new department, the Bush Administration has undertaken an immense task that will reorganize elements of roughly 100 federal agencies and create the second largest governmental department with a substantial budget of $37 billion and nearly 170,000 employees. Bush's recommendation calls for the consolidation of components from almost every corner of the government, including the Center for Disease Control, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Departments of Transportation and Agriculture. In order to implement this plan, his administration faces the colossal challenge of merging these diverse federal agencies into one massive department without producing a bureaucratic nightmare with overlapping jurisdictions and swelling budgets.

However, the President must first deal with the varied concerns of Congress, whose approval he will need to accomplish this reorganization. While most members of Congress agree greater precautions need to be taken in order to safeguard America's homeland, some question the President's plan, specifically because it does not include the two major agencies responsible for intelligence-gathering, the FBI and CIA. Congressional criticism has surrounded both agencies since September 11th, with critics directly blaming the lack of inter agency collaboration for the government's inability to predict and prevent the attacks. While Bush's proposal does not incorporate these agencies into the Department of Homeland Security, he does call for their cooperation in information sharing between both agencies as well as the new department, which will review all intelligence relevant to domestic security.

Other congressional concerns deal mainly with the logistics of the department's structure, but despite any hesitation, there is general bipartisan support for Bush's plan, and many in Congress have declared it possible to resolve these issues in time to pass the legislation by the first anniversary of September 11th. President Bush anticipates that the Department of Homeland Security will be up and running by January 2003, and in order to facilitate the establishment of the new department, he has assembled a Homeland Security Advisory Council consisting of leaders from academic, government, and business communities, who possess expertise in government restructuring and corporate mergers. They will assist in organizing the department into four major divisions: Border and Transportation Security, which will include agencies such as the Coast Guard and Immigration, Emergency Preparedness and Response, which will coordinate the government's response to an attack, Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear Countermeasures, which would handle any response to an attack involving weapons of mass destruction, and Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection which will oversee the examination of information concerning any potential threats to domestic security.

Bush insists that the government will be better equipped to defend America's homeland, once the responsibility for identifying and securing vulnerable segments of America's infrastructure are combined under one department. He intends for this new department to streamline not only threat assessments concerning future attacks, but also the government's reaction time to whatever sort of attack might occur, and hopefully by improving communications between government agencies Bush's Department of Homeland Security will be able to prevent future terrorist attacks without becoming mired in bureaucratic obstacles.

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Susan Hollis graduated with a degree in Political Science from Oklahoma State University. Her educational background consists of a mixture of studies in both domestic and foreign affairs. She has been an intern for a United States Senator at the US Capitol in Washington DC, where she obtained firsthand knowledge of the legislative process by watching it in action. During her internship, Susan had the opportunity to observe congressional hearings, deal with constituent services, and contribute to legislative research. Ms. Hollis has also had the chance to participate with a congressional campaign for the US House of Representatives.

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