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Big security plans in just a few pages
From Mike M. Ahlers
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- By Washington standards, the document President Bush sent to Congress Monday on the new Department of Homeland Security is paltry, puny, almost embarrassingly brief. It is only 18 pages. But it is notable in two respects. It was sent to Congress 60 days before its 60-day deadline. And it sketches out the most ambitious government reorganization in more than 50 years. Titled the "Department of Homeland Security Reorganization Plan," the document spells out plans to transfer 22 agencies to the new department -- the 15th Cabinet-level department in the government. And while Washington reports are infamous for being filled with mountains of verbiage and molehills of detail, this report is just the opposite. Under the subhead "March 1, 2003," are the following instructions: "Transfer the Coast Guard. Transfer the Customs Service. Transfer the United States Secret Service." Those are some of the agencies that will be transferred on that date to the new Department of Homeland Security. Transfer of all the agencies designated will take place on a timetable specified in the plan. In all, the transfers will involve 171,000 employees. Some of the job descriptions in the document are awesome in their breadth. Among the responsibilities bestowed upon the undersecretary for border and transportation security is this: "Prevent the entry of terrorists and the instruments of terrorism into the United States." The Homeland Security law Bush signed Monday gave him 60 days to submit a reorganization plan to Congress. But, citing the need to act quickly to counter terrorists, the administration sent the plan to Congress on the same day as Bush signed the law. The plan also establishes the chain of command. The new department will have a secretary -- Bush nominated Tom Ridge -- as well as a deputy secretary, four undersecretaries, "not more than 12 assistant secretaries," and about 15 other top officials. Most of the agencies to be consolidated in the DHS will fall under four directorates: • Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection. Under the plan, the two biggest intelligence organizations -- the FBI and the CIA -- remain outside the Department of Homeland Security. But several assets, such as the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, become part of the new department, and the department will have responsibility for detecting and identifying threats against the United States. • Science and Technology. The plan puts parts of the National Laboratory programs under DHS control and entrusts the department with developing countermeasures to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and other emerging terrorist threats. • Border and Transportation Security. The BTS directorate will include the Bureau of Border Security, the Office of Domestic Preparedness, the Customs Service and the Transportation Security Administration. Also, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and the Federal Protective Service. • Emergency Preparedness and Response. This directorate will coordinate the federal government's response to terrorist attacks. Still other agencies -- notably the Coast Guard and the Secret Service -- will report directly to the secretary.
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