Key Democrat blasts White House homeland security moves

A key Democrat in the homeland security debate blasted the Bush administration Wednesday for stealing the idea of a Homeland Security Department and said that officials in charge of crafting the new department are flailing.

California Democrat Ellen Tauscher and Texas Republican Mac Thornberry sponsored a bill, H.R. 4660, to create a National Homeland Security Department and a National Office for Combating Terrorism within the White House, and Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., introduced similar Senate legislation. But the White House had asked lawmakers to delay action on such legislation until the administration studied the issue further. Then last week, White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge delivered President Bush's plan for a new department to Capitol Hill.

Tauscher criticized that effort Wednesday at a conference on homeland security hosted by the Progressive Policy Institute, the policy arm of moderate New Democrats. "At a time we need laser surgery ... unfortunately, it looks like we have a bunch of surgeons coming into surgery with meat cleavers instead of very discreet scalpels," she said of the reorganization process.

Tauscher said the "typical Washington game" of determining how the department would work is being played, and "there's a lot of excuses as to why we can't seem to do this." She said White House staffers request her help daily.

The administration must begin giving more details of how the department would work or else risk losing the support of the general public, Tauscher said. People have not been given "a sense of optimism that we're actually going to do the right thing," she said, adding that Ridge and Bush had "better get out there and start to engage everybody."

Later in the day, Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said he will "work hard" to ensure that the bill includes strong links between the Homeland Security and Defense departments. His panel will have primary oversight of a bill to create the department.

"We need to guarantee the highest level of ongoing cooperation between the agencies," Lieberman said. "We don't need to reinvent these wheels, just to redirect and re-engineer them."

Lieberman also hailed the success of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funnels new technologies into the nation's military. Calling it "one of the most efficient engines of innovation in American history" because it has developed technologies such as the Internet, Lieberman said that success could be applied elsewhere.

"Now, we need to learn from its success and apply that same creativity and ingenuity within the new Department of Homeland Security," Lieberman said.

Lieberman's committee is crafting a bill that would create SARPA, with the "s" standing for "security." The agency would focus on developing and deploying homeland defense technologies, such as those that can detect weapons at ports and airports, and in cyberspace.

SARPA also could devise better biometric technologies for use at secure entry points, Lieberman said, and could help pioneer "smart buildings" that detect intruders, as well as protect vital information systems.