WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- House members show little reluctance to tell the White House where its proposed Department of Homeland Security falls short, as evidenced by amendments coming out of a House Energy and Commerce Committee session Thursday.
The committee convened to finalize its contribution to H.R. 5005, the DHS legislation going to the Select Committee on Homeland Security, which will formulate the final bill for full House consideration. Committee Chairman Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., said a consensus amendment package would enhance the relationship between DHS and existing Cabinet agencies.
"We make clear the Department of Health and Human Services will maintain primary responsibility over human-related health research, but must collaborate with the new Secretary of Homeland Security on priorities related to countermeasures for terrorist attacks," Tauzin said.
Several committee members, including Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said the amendments would help preserve public health programs. The rapid pace of the DHS legislation is worrisome, however, especially in light of the select committee's ability to ignore suggestions, he and other members said.
"I don't like the agency as proposed by the president, and I don't like the idea that this Congress may attempt to sell the American people an ineffectual bill of goods," Dingell said. "The amendments reflect an intensive and good faith effort to make the department work."
Tauzin said the White House would be wise to incorporate Dingell's experience from the turbulent creation of the Department of Energy in the late 1970s. The committee will monitor the transition to DHS continuously to avoid similar problems, Tauzin said.
The committee's package also gives the proposed department access to raw intelligence data, as well as the tools and people to analyze it. The amendments create a specific cybersecurity program for defending both public and private computer networks.
The committee generally expressed concern about the multiple research and development programs in the proposed department. The solution offered -- an undersecretary for research and development and technology systems -- largely parallels a measure adopted Wednesday by the House Science Committee.
Leaders of both houses of Congress, along with President Bush, have called for passage of the DHS authorizing legislation before the first anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on Sept. 11. The committee's attempt to aid that swift process, by passing the package without further amendment, tripped over a proposal from Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.
Markey's amendment would have added language requiring the DHS to create a multi-agency task force to help safeguard sealed radiological sources from becoming part of a "dirty bomb." The changes also would require the DHS to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to see what applications could be improved to work without radioactive material.
Both Tauzin and Dingell objected to the idea, saying it was incomplete and inappropriate in a bill meant to set broad guidelines for the new department. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., said the amendment's language could be construed to apply to nuclear warheads. Markey rebutted this argument by pointing to the cybersecurity program, saying it was much more than a broad guideline.
The Markey amendment finally was stopped on a procedural move from Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., who said the proposal fell outside the purview of H.R. 5005. Markey and other Democrats said several references to radiological threats in the original bill kept the amendment entirely on target.
Tauzin ruled in favor of Deal's point of order. Markey's attempt to appeal the ruling was tabled on a 37-7 vote. The consensus package was approved unanimously by a voice vote.
