WASHINGTON – Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe
Lieberman (D-CT) today called for the establishment of a
permanent, homeland security agency with broad responsibilities
to protect against threats to the American people, including
terrorist attacks. "With the horrifying images of
devastation at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and in
Pennsylvania fresh in our minds," he asserted, "bold
organizational change is demanded of us."
At a hearing he convened to examine whether government was
adequately organized to respond to threats to the American
homeland, Lieberman expressed support for the creation of a
National Homeland Security Agency, which "would be
responsible for coordinating an array of federal activities
relating to homeland security" and incorporate selected
functions now undertaken by other agencies. Noting that current
federal responsibility for terrorism was "divided and
subdivided among more than 40 agencies, bureaus, and offices,
which spend over $11 billion a year," the senator supported
consolidating and integrating many of these activities in a new
agency whose director would be a member of the President’s
cabinet.
Lieberman praised the President’s Wednesday evening address
to Congress in which the President announced his intention to
establish a White House Office of Homeland Security. "It’s
a positive step forward," Lieberman said of the President’s
proposal, "although we may need to determine the contours,
makeup, and powers of the new office.
"I hope to work closely with the Administration in
crafting legislation to reorganize our government’s
stewardship of homeland security," Lieberman stated.
"For my part, I think it would be helpful to have a
permanent, statutory agency that could improve the effectiveness
of our anti-terrorism efforts." Lieberman favors
establishing a robust agency, with budget and line authority,
that could pull together anti-terrorism resources that are now
widely scattered across government. "I am open to other
approaches, but it seems to me that such an organization would
be more effective than what we have now in preparing for,
responding to, and preventing terrorist attacks," he
concluded.
The homeland security agency initiative was recommended by
the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century in a
report earlier this year. The commission’s co-chairs, former
Senators Warren Rudman and Gary Hart, offered strong testimony
in support of the initiative. Other witnesses included Virginia
Governor James Gilmore and former Ambassador for
Counterterrorism Paul Bremer of the Advisory Panel to Assess
Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons
of Mass Destruction, and David Walker, Comptroller General of
the General Accounting Office.