Bush to Congress: Homeland security not a political issue

Showing a willingness to use the stick along with the carrot, President Bush Wednesday amended previous pledges to cooperate with Congress on fashioning the new Homeland Security Department with a warning that he will take his vision for the agency to the voters.

"Once I propose it, I'm going to take my case beyond Washington to ... the real influence peddlers of America-that's the American people, the people ... who've got the capacity to inform their members of Congress or the Senate [of] their opinion," Bush said.

The president spoke in the White House Indian Treaty Room, where he convened the first meeting of his new Homeland Security Advisory Council, a panel of individuals from outside the administration tasked to advise Bush on homeland defense.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer Wednesday indicated the group will also lobby Congress to help get legislation establishing the agency passed. Bush added that he would seek to defuse Capitol Hill turf battles by trying to "remind the members of Congress that this is not a political issue," but "an American issue."

The president Wednesday afternoon also planned to meet with the chairmen and ranking members of House and Senate committees with potential purview over portions of the new department. Fleischer said Bush indicated that he would seek cooperation among the committee leaders in forming the agency, but he indicated the president would not try to influence the manner in which Congress considers the issue.

In his remarks to the advisory group, Bush seemed eager to address concerns about current intelligence sharing between the FBI and CIA and about whether the new department will have sufficient means to scrutinize the intelligence it receives. The new agency needs "an analytical capacity" that can digest information from "throughout the government."

Bush asserted that the FBI and CIA are doing "a much better job" today of sharing information. And he expressed confidence that FBI Director Robert Mueller is "doing a good job" of changing the agency's central mission to one of preventing terrorist attacks.

Earlier Wednesday, Bush signed into law the $4.6 billion Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Response Act of 2002. The legislation authorizes new spending for grants to states, local governments and healthcare facilities for planning and preparedness while improving communication between public health officials and first responders and healthcare providers. The bill also makes available more drugs, vaccines and other medical supplies and reauthorizes the Prescription Drug User Fee Act through 2007.