WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush's $38 billion homeland security plan was pummeled Tuesday by a Senate Democrat and a prominent liberal Washington think tank.
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., criticized Bush for failing to allow Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to testify before his Senate Appropriations Committee and instead sending three cabinet secretaries to answer questions about his plan.
"I've made no threats, I've made no partisan statements," Byrd said. "I simply can't understand the arrogance on the part on the part of an administration that will not assist Congress," he said.
"The real losers," Byrd said, "are the American people whose lives this government is trying to protect."
Ridge formed the Bush homeland security plan as a head of the White House office of Homeland Security and a member of Bush's staff. Bush has refused to let Ridge testify formally to maintain the precedent that White House aides cannot be compelled to answer questions by Congress.
A battle of wills has emerged between the White House and some Democratic and Republican senators.
By holding back Ridge, Byrd claimed, the American people are not "being told the whole strategy. The Congress and the American people are forced to learn about the administration's homeland security efforts in a piecemeal, patchwork fashion."
Earlier Tuesday, the Brookings Institution issued a 177-page report that said that Bush's plan for homeland defense does not go far enough and called for a special, new border security agency be formed.
The report called for Bush to form a "statutory agency in the executive branch" with cabinet rank to run the various elements of homeland security. This is has been a controversial point since the president announced his plan earlier this year. Bush has seen Ridge as a "coordinator," advising various agencies on how to direct their homeland security activities, but having no formal power to order things done. Ridge has said he can get things done because of his access to Bush.
But in the weeks since the plan was unveiled in February, Ridge has run into trouble with several agencies, including the Immigration and Naturalization Service and Customs Service, over how to handle border screening. Ridge has also been resisted on an idea to combine all agencies that deal with border issues.
This has given rise to efforts in both Congress and among city and state officials to pressure Bush to form a new agency.
Brookings study backed an expanded version of Ridge's plan calling for a federal border agency that would comprise the Coast Guard, the Customs Service, the enforcement arm of INS, the Agriculture Department's Quarantine Inspection Service and probably the new Transportation Security Agency. This would be a mammoth federal apparatus containing more than 100,000 employees if all those steps were taken.
The report noted the "ultimate success in protecting the American homeland against terrorist attack will depend to a significant extent on how the U.S. government is organized to meet this threat." It reported that 70 agencies spend money on counter-terrorism activities and some 130 different agencies have some responsibility in homeland security.
Tennessee Republican Sen. Fred Thompson, who attended the publication of the Brookings report, was skeptical about whether the government had the will to take the necessary steps to reorganize in the face of the terrorist threat. He said he doubted the government had the "political will" to change this vital area of operations when the entire federal government needs major reorganization.
Thompson, who a few months ago announced he was not seeking reelection, said the government needed to be realistic about the cost of the changes. The Brookings report estimated the changes would cost $10 to $15 billion more than the $38 billion that Bush's 2003 budget estimated.
Brookings also recommended that Congress create a new post of under-secretary of defense to head homeland security operations and serve as the civilian head of the new Northern Command, which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced earlier this month. This new command will coordinate U.S. military forces in North America and coordinate with Canadian and Mexican armed forces.
