Decision Making: Analyzing the Costs and Benefits (Creation of the Department of Homeland Security)

(US Capitol, Washington DC. Courtesy photo by Andrew Bossi. From Wikimedia Commons)

            The DHS was established amidst strong challenges and oppositions from union leaders, political activists, and civil libertarians and from members of Congress themselves. The monetary costs of establishing the DHS became a big issue. Oppositions said that that Bush Administration has created a “big government” that added burden to the tax-paying public for the big expenditures. Also, the fear that DHS would infringe the civil liberties of the citizens were sounded-off by the civil libertarians. There were trade-offs on the costs and benefits of establishing the DHS, but in the end, the benefits of security to the nation had outweighed the cost in monetary obligations.

            The Bush Administration’s original plan was to have different personnel systems in the DHS. The plan will allow the Homeland Security Secretary to regulate the pay schedule, performance measures and termination policies. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGA) opposed this as the proposal accordingly would diminish the rights of the federal employees to form and join unions.

            However, the Senior Executive Association (SEA) supported the President on the ground that “the organizational challenges inherent in creating this new Department and the importance of its mission to all Americans necessitate maintaining current Presidential authority related to national security exclusions from collective bargaining.” Because of the controversy on the civil service issue the legislative proposal has created and the fear that the legislative proposal would be stranded in the Senate, the Republican House leaders Dick Armey and Rep. Rob Portman modified the H.R. 5005 to include the traditional rights of the employees.

            The American Civil Liberties Union was very vocal against the establishment of DHS because of the fear that it would operate in secrecy and with no public accountability. On their press release on June 25, 2002, ACLU legislative counsel Timothy Edgar said, “If you like the idea of a government agency that is 100 percent secret and 0 percent accountable, you'll love the new Homeland Security Department . . . The Administration's plan exempts the new agency from a host of laws designed to keep the government open and accountable and to protect whistleblowers."

            One of the oppositions to H.R. 5005 is Congressman Ron Paul, who said, “Congress was led to believe that the legislation would be a simple reorganization aimed at increasing efficiency, not an attempt to expand federal power. Fiscally conservative members of Congress were even told that the bill would be budget neutral! Yet, when the House of Representatives initially considered creating a Department of Homeland Security, the legislative vehicle almost overnight grew from 32 pages to 282 pages- and the cost had ballooned to at least $3 billion.”

            Moreover, some Democratic Party leaders like Senator Tom Daschle opposed certain provisions of the bill.  He was against giving the pharmaceutical companies who make vaccines the protection from liability.  He did not like the creation of a research center in the Texas A&M University for Homeland Security programs. He also contested the holding of secret meetings by the advisory committee that will favor the corporate lobbyists and the protection from liability of the companies who make anti-terror technologies or products. The Democrats found a supporter in Senator John McCain (R). The opponents to the provisions contend that the Bush administration had politicized the establishment of the DHS by catering to the interests of the special groups.

            The consolidation of other government agencies into the Homeland Security was not met favorably by congressmen in charge of the committees that supervise the affected offices. The agency-transfer would mean losing oversight, influence, and budgetary control. Because the Congress has the control on the budget of Homeland Security, it was not surprising that the establishment of DHS fell to the whims and caprices of congressmen who worried more about losing their clout over their committees than the threats the terrorists posed to the nation.

            The process of identifying the costs of establishing the DHS and the benefits coming from its existence were debated passionately throughout the deliberations in Congress and in the public hearings by the committee. The positive angles, as well as the negative sides of establishing a central domestic anti-terror agency outside the FBI, was seriously studied. In the end, the benefits DHS will provide to the nation outweighed the monetary costs and complexities of consolidating other federal agencies into one organization.

            H.R. 5005, which had 118 co-sponsors, was passed in the House of Representatives by a YES vote of 295 and a NO vote of 132. H.R. 5005 was received in the Senate on July 30, 2002, and was passed with an amendment by a YES vote of 90 to a No vote of 9 on November 19, 2002. The H.R. 5005 was subjected to 409 amendments in the House and the Senate floors, and finally on November 25, 2002, H.R. 5005 was signed by President Bush. H.R. 5005, otherwise known as the Homeland Security Act of 2002, had paved the way for the largest reorganization of the federal government since the passage of the 1947 National Security Act that created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency.