WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge was sworn in Friday as the secretary of the nation's first Cabinet-level agency dedicated to preventing acts of terrorism on U.S. soil, more than a year after attacks on Washington and New York killed some 3,000 people.
"Homeland Security becomes the 15th executive department of my Cabinet. It begins a vital mission in the defense of our country," President George W. Bush said during the swearing-in ceremony.
Vice President Dick Cheney administered the oath of office to Ridge as the new secretary's wife and two children looked on.
Former drug czar Asa Hutchinson will serve as Ridge's undersecretary for border and transportation security. Other senior appointments announced Friday include Janet Hale as undersecretary of management and Gordon Johndroe as press secretary.
Ridge, 58, takes over a department that will consolidate more than 170,000 workers in 22 federal agencies -- the most sweeping federal government re-organization since 1947. Bush -- initially opposed to the creation of a new agency -- had tapped the former governor from Pennsylvania as his homeland security advisor a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Since then, Ridge has worked to coordinate information between intelligence agencies, local law enforcement and governments, and other Cabinet departments. Ridge had been working out of what had been called the White House Office of Homeland Security located in the West Wing.
Now his offices will move temporarily to larger facilities at the Naval Operations center in northwest Washington. Most agencies come under the new department on March 1, and its budget this year is $33 billion.
"He's a decisive, clear-thinking executive who knows how to solve problems. He's a person of integrity and a person of good judgment. At the White House he has done an outstanding job and he's earned the gratitude of the American people," Bush said.
But the new department has also attracted some concern.
Lawmakers and other experts have said they are worried about how Ridge and his agency will coordinate with the intelligence community. They have also expressed concern about how workers will be treated, particularly whistleblowers. One of the sticking points in drafting legislation establishing the new department was the White House's insistence that it needed flexibility in hiring, firing and pay structures.
But the most pungently expressed criticism to date came Friday from Sen. Hilary Clinton, D-N.Y.
The United States, Clinton said in prepared remarks released by her office, has relied on a "myth of homeland security... written in rhetoric, inadequate resources and a new bureaucracy." She went on to say that homeland security is not simply about re-organization of existing bureaucracies, but about having the right "attitude, focus, policy and resources."
" ... And right now we're lacking in all four," she concluded.
Ridge, asked by reporters about these comments, responded: "It's not a myth that twice a day, representatives of the intelligence community through video conferencing consult with one another about either the information they've received, threats that they're monitoring or situations that they're working on ... It's rather unfortunate to categorize the work that these men and women have been doing and the departments have been doing as a myth."
Ridge later told reporters that he resigned Friday as the president's homeland security adviser. He said he would continue to meet with the president in morning briefings -- along with CIA Director George Tenet, FBI Director Robert Mueller and other intelligence officials.
"I also reiterated to the president my commitment to do everything I can to harness the energy and creativity and the will and the commitment of 170,000-plus people to do everything they can every single day to accomplish the mission of homeland security," Ridge said. "And that is to do everything we can to prevent a terrorist attack, to reduce our vulnerability, to prepare for an attack, to respond as quickly as possible, to do it to our very best ability every single day."
(With additional reporting by Rhiannon Varmette.)
