John Gannon

fter 24 years in the intelligence community, John Gannon faced a steep learning curve on Capitol Hill. In former roles as assistant director for analysis at the CIA and chairman of the National Intelligence Council, Gannon quickly saw that power is everything on the Hill-in contrast to the idea-driven environment of the intelligence community. But Gannon's intelligence background is what caught the eye of his new boss, House Select Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., who sees intelligence as a central component of homeland security. Gannon's job is to develop policy and sell it to the Department of Homeland Security and the Hill-and build and manage the majority staff, which now numbers 50.

"The committee is going to develop a lot of its own steam," Gannon predicted. Items on its 2004 agenda include making local grants contingent on the level of terrorist threat, measuring the department's progress, reauthorizing the department for 2005, and fortifying the Homeland Security Act. Before coming to the committee, Gannon spent six months running the intelligence portion of the Homeland Security Department's transition team, where he got to know the department and the people who fill its upper echelons. Gannon turned down an offer to head up the department's information analysis wing because it wouldn't have given him the internal clout needed to do the job.

Gannon, 59, grew up in Worcester, Mass., and went on to Holy Cross College and later Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned his Ph.D. in history. This year, he'll play an important role in Cox's push to make his committee permanent-a push that many committee chairmen see as a threat to their power. "I would like to see this as a permanent committee," Gannon said. "But I've got to prove it to a lot of other people."