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Homeland Security Overhaul Is in Works

Stakes Rise for Long-Awaited Shake-Up Following London
Terrorist Attacks

The Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2005

Before a gathering of top government officials today,
Michael Chertoff is due to announce his first major
policy decision in his five months as Homeland
Security secretary: a blueprint for overhauling the
sprawling department.

The long-awaited shake-up has taken on added
importance amid the investigation in London and
queries about the Department of Homeland Security's
ability to detect and stop similar terrorist attacks
in the U.S. At the same time, the department is
bracing for turf fights as it rearranges priorities.

"The stakes are higher after London," said James
Carafano, a security expert at the conservative
Heritage Foundation and a proponent of overhauling the
department. "Now everyone will want to have a say in
how this goes forward, whereas a few weeks ago, they
probably would have let him run with the ball."

At the center of Mr. Chertoff's plans to create a
leaner counterterrorism force is the establishment of
a homeland intelligence office and a policy division
to better coordinate strategy among the department's
many law-enforcement and emergency-response duties. At
the same time, Mr. Chertoff wants to eliminate or slim
down entire sections of the 180,000-strong
bureaucracy.

Other issues, including border security and a revision
of the much-derided color-coded security alert system,
still were on the drawing board. Homeland Security
officials, however, say Mr. Chertoff will unveil plans
for improving passenger screening at airports and, in
light of the London attacks, will offer some initial
thinking on how to improve ground-transportation
security.

When Mr. Chertoff, a former federal prosecutor, took
over in February from Tom Ridge, the country's first
Homeland Security secretary, the department was widely
regarded as a jumble of 22 government agencies cobbled
together in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks and often working at cross-purposes.

In March, Mr. Chertoff ordered a review of nearly
every operation in the department with an eye toward
managing the risks of a possible terrorist attack in a
smarter, more focused manner. He and his staff
discussed the plan with members of Congress yesterday
and Monday.

According to congressional staff members who attended
the recent meetings, Mr. Chertoff proposes scrapping
the border and transportation security division and
replacing it with a policy shop that would make sure
that all the different arms of the department are
working toward similar goals.

Under the Chertoff plan, the Secret Service,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and
Border Protection, U.S. Coast Guard, Federal Emergency
Management Agency and the Transport Security
Administration all will answer directly to Secretary
Chertoff.

The TSA, one of the more beleaguered agencies at the
department, is set to regain control of Federal Air
Marshals from ICE and will continue to handle security
concerns for all modes of transportation, not just
aviation, which once was a key consideration of Mr.
Chertoff.

Homeland Security's most unusual entity -- the
Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection
Directorate -- is also on the chopping block. It
originally was set up to map intelligence about
terrorist threats against the nation's most vulnerable
facilities to help set priorities for federal
attention and resources.

The unit made little headway. Few businesses in
pivotal sectors of the economy wanted to share
information about vulnerabilities with Homeland
Security, fearing it could be used against them by
regulators or leaked to competitors. The "National
Asset Database," which the directorate was supposed to
draw up, was ridiculed after it was disclosed that a
number of golf clubs and even a miniature golf course
were listed as part of the country's critical
infrastructure.

Mr. Chertoff's intention is to replace the directorate
with a unit headed by a chief intelligence officer,
congressional staff members said. The
infrastructure-protection components would be handed
over to a new preparedness division that would also
include the Office for Domestic Preparedness, which
hands out grants to state and local governments. The
move relieves FEMA of its longstanding functions to
help communities prepare for disasters with programs
like building houses outside flood zones, erecting
hurricane shutters and drafting evacuation routes.
Under the plan, FEMA would be responsible only for
disaster response and cleanup.

Republican and Democratic congressional staffers said
changing FEMA might be one of Mr. Chertoff's toughest
battles. For years, the agency has worked with state
and local emergency managers who oppose changing a
federal emergency-response system that they know and
that has worked well in the past decade.

Supporters of Mr. Chertoff say his plan does a good
job of flattening the management of the department,
making it more responsive and flexible.

Frank Cilluffo, director of George Washington
University's Homeland Security Policy Institute and a
consultant to the department, says the reorganization
aims to pattern the department after the Justice and
Defense departments, where "operational" agencies
report directly to the attorney general and secretary
rather than lower-level officials, which has been the
case at Homeland Security.

Expectations for Mr. Chertoff ran high on Capitol Hill
following his confirmation, but there has been little
to judge him on so far. "There is a lot riding on this
review. He has set the bar very high," said one
administration official.

Those expectations are even higher since last week's
subway and bus attacks in London. With the
department's 2006 appropriation now before the Senate,
lawmakers have room to upset the plan. "Certainly,
there are a lot of things going on right now," says
one senior Homeland Security official. "But we decided
to move ahead with this."

One sweetener for Congress: Mr. Chertoff's plan aims
to stop excessive spending on government contractors.
The department's TSA has come under particular
criticism for wasteful spending.

Democrats and Republicans briefed by the secretary say
some of the ideas they have heard sound good, but they
want to see more details. Mr. Chertoff is scheduled to
discuss his plan before the Senate and House oversight
committees this week. He then has 60 days before he
can implement it, depending on whether Congress
decides that some of the plans require legislation.

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Pilot Paul

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