WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge is not expected to attend a series of homeland security hearings in the Senate starting this week, frustrating lawmakers weighing homeland security legislation.
The Bush administration's reluctance to produce Ridge has ruffled feathers among Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.
Powerful Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W. Va., said that without Ridge, the Senate would have to patch together piecemeal testimony from other members of the Bush administration.
"Because the White House continues to oppose Director Ridge's testimony, the American people will only hear pieces of a plan to address homeland security," Byrd said. "The one person with an understanding of all of the Administration's priorities will be absent."
Other key members of Bush's team are expected to show for the Appropriations Committee hearings beginning Tuesday, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and others.
Ridge's office did not return calls seeking comment. The Bush administration has said Ridge will not testify because he is a presidential adviser, not an official with Cabinet status. Senators have said they would not ask Ridge about his confidential discussions with the president.
Roiling the waters between the Senate and the White House further, the Bush administration also has not responded to an April 17 letter from Byrd and committee Ranking Member Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, emphasizing the need for Ridge to appear.
"The Committee needs to hear directly from you, the individual who has been put in charge of homeland defense activities by the President, about the Administration's strategy for a comprehensive national domestic defense plan," the letter said.
The tension comes as lawmakers are weighing homeland security funding for next year. But also, lawmakers are considering legislation that would make Ridge's post a Cabinet-level position.
Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-Fla., both have legislation that would do that. Lieberman and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., have drafted a bill that would consolidate the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, U.S. Customs, Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Ridge's command.
