Securing US on Paper (6/14/02)
by Dean Hartwell
Little more than
twenty years ago, Ronald Reagan promised to "get the government off our
backs" by, in part, abolishing the Departments of Education and Energy.
Now President Bush has joined members in Congress in calling for making the
Office of Homeland Security a cabinet department.
Has the Republican Party changed? Or is this issue much more complicated than
ideology?
The plan involves putting over one hundred agencies, among them the Coast
Guard, the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the
Border Patrol, into one homeland intelligence agency. That way, all
organizations charged with the responsibility of protecting our borders will
not be spread out in several government departments, as they are now. In
theory, they would communicate with one another much more efficiently than now.
How would the plan work in practice?
Bush's strategy is to leave the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) alone, despite criticism for their alleged
mishandling of information about the attacks last September 11. The two agencies
and now the new Homeland Security Department may each share jurisdiction over
terrorists and other threats to United States' citizens and would have to work
on coordinating efforts.
A plan advanced by former Senator Gary Hart would divide the portions of the
FBI that currently work on security and place them in the new department.
Supposedly, law enforcement officials would have an easier time communicating
about suspects and possible terror plots. But intra-agency conflicts in recent
history between the FBI and the Justice Department suggest that this idea may
work better on paper than in reality.
President Bush has told Congress he wants this plan put into practice by
January 2003. Thus, with security an ongoing issue since the attacks of
September 11, opponents of the plan in Congress will be hard-pressed to speak
up in this election year. Supporters of the new department, meanwhile, will
have to speed it up or appear to look weak.
When Harry Truman reorganized the Department of Defense, he took a year-and-a-half
to work with Congress to get that job done. Our president and our leaders in
Congress should look at the complexities of devising a new department and take
their time to work out difficulties.
And,
if the reorganization cannot achieve the goal of protecting us, it would be
best kept on paper.