How Powerful Should He Be?(Tom Ridge)(Brief Article)

Even as George W. Bush released an executive order detailing the job of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, the plan hit a snag: Congress. The House and Senate were already at work on competing organizational approaches that would radically expand the office. What's at issue?

Several recent commissions have labored over the problem of homeland defense. All described a system in disarray: more than 40 federal departments and agencies with competing or overlapping responsibilities, including heavyweights like the CIA, the FBI and the Defense Department. One group headed by Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore recommended a cabinet-level presidential adviser to corral the chaos, the "czar model." Another, led by former senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, proposed a new cabinet department with its own bureaucracy. Their concern: without budget authority, the director's power depends on his relationship with the president.

Bush, a former governor, opted for Gilmore's approach. Congress is leaning toward the Hart-Rudman plan. Two bills, one from Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry and another from Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, would turn Ridge's post into a Senate- confirmed cabinet position, backed by a department that would run FEMA, the Coast Guard, Customs, the Border Patrol and other agencies. "Governor Ridge ought to have at least as much power as he had when he was governor of Pennsylvania," Lieberman told NEWSWEEK. Thornberry and Lieberman admit it will be tough to pass legislation expanding the power of the Homeland Security office. "If the White House feels very strongly ...