INDUSTRY, AGENCIES REACT TO BUSH SECURITY AGENCY PROPOSAL
President Bush's plan to establish a Cabinet-level homeland defense agency to coordinate intelligence and tighten the nation’s security drew support from agency leaders and concerns from industry.
Bush’s proposal calls for the merging of federal agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs Service, the newly formed Transportation Security Administration and Immigration and Naturalization Service into one, and placing them under the leadership of an office to strengthen homeland security based on an agency focused on four divisions: Border and Transportation Security; Emergency Preparedness and Response; Chemical and Nuclear Countermeasures; and Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection.
Bush, who made the announcement just days after Congress began hearings into alleged intelligence failures leading up to the terrorist attacks of last September, said this new department would consolidate the nation’s intelligence specialists in the war against terrorism through efficiency.
If such a merging were to occur, it would mean the shifting of more than 170,000 personnel employed at those agencies.
The move was met with support from directors of two government agencies in Washington.
“I applaud the vision of President Bush and unequivocally support his bold proposal to create a Department of Homeland Security, which will include the entire U.S. Customs Service,' said U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Robert Bonner.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, whose agency oversees TSA, offered supported for Bush’s proposal at a speech in Washington Friday. “The security of the United States is — and must always be — the paramount mission of our government,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said the reorganization may help tighten security, but that Customs’ mission of protecting the borders while facilitating trade must not be compromised.
“The Customs Service must protect our borders while it coordinates the flow of goods; trying to separate those could jeopardize $8 billion a day in international trade,” Istook said.
Michael Laden, president of Target Customs Brokers, agreed with Istook on the importance of Customs’ role in trade facilitation, citing that one of the main goals of terrorism is centered on the halting of American commerce, in addition to the physical harm perpetrated by terrorism. “My greatest concern has been and continues to be, the facilitation of legitimate trade,” Laden said. '
Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Ocean Transportation Coalition, questioned whether Customs may take less interest in trade facilitation if its moved within the proposed Department of Homeland Security.
'We're afraid that enforcement may prevail' under this management structure, said Friedmann, who also serves as counsel to trade associations, ocean transportation intermediaries and shippers.