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| (President Bush Addressing Joint Session of Congress. Photo from Wikimedia Commons) |
Even
before the 9/11 tragedies, there was already a call for major changes in
governmental structures, infrastructures,
and processes that relate to protecting the homeland from terrorist threats.
During the Clinton Administration, a bipartisan commission known as the US
Commission on National Security for the 21st Century (Hart-Rudman Commission) had
existed to review, among others, the US national security apparatus. The
14-member Commission were headed by former Senators Gary Hart (D) and Warren Rudman
(R). The Commission stated, “The combination of unconventional weapons
proliferation with the persistence of international terrorism will end the
relative invulnerability of the U.S. homeland to catastrophic attack. A direct
attack against American citizens on American soil is likely over the next quarter-century. The risk is not only death and
destruction but also a demoralization that could undermine US global
leadership. In the face of this threat, our nation has no coherent or
integrated governmental structures.”
The
Commission recommended the creation of a super organization to be called the
National Homeland Security Agency (NHSA) that would be in charge of “planning,
coordinating, and integrating various US government activities involved in
homeland security.” The Commission pointed out that was very important to
consolidate the various organizations in the federal government as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Coast
Guard, Border Patrol and Bureau of Customs to name some. The NHSA, as
envisioned, will be created by Congress
and will be funded by the body, too. The Commission submitted its final report
to the US Congress in February 2001.
On
April 2001, US Representative William Thornberry (R), a member of the House
Armed Services Committee, introduced House Resolution 1158, which called for
the creation of NHSA. The resolution did not gain support from his peers. Some
House Resolutions and Senate Bills were later on submitted to the US Congress purposely to create a domestic
security agency.
Days
after the terrorist attacks, President Bush, in
his address to a joint session of Congress
on September 20, 2001, announced the
creation of the Office of Homeland Security (OHS). The OHS is created under the
Presidential Executive Order and function to “coordinate executive branch’s
efforts to detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, and
recover from terrorist attacks within the United States.” Bush hand-picked his
personal friend Pennsylvania Governor and former Congressman Tom Ridge to
direct the OHS.
Many
believed the OHS had not met its mission and had not operated freely under its functions because of the way the
organization was designed. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D) said, “This is the most
important responsibility the federal government will have in the near future, and to give Mr. Ridge less
power in this office is just not what the nation needs.”
On
September 21, 2001, Senator Bob Graham (D) introduced S. 1449 that will
establish the National Office for Combating Terrorism (NOCT). It gained seven
co-sponsors, and they were Evan Bayh, Richard Durbin, Barbara Mikulski, Jay
Rockefeller, Dianne Feinstein, Bill Nelson, and Susan Collins. The Bill
proposed that the NOCT be established under the Executive Office of the
President and to be modeled after the Office of National Drug Control Policy
(ONDCP). US Representative Alcee Hastings (D) introduced a counterpart bill in
the House of Representatives under H.R. 3078. Senator Graham and Representative
Hastings reportedly “promoted the findings of the Advisory Panel to Assess
Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass
Destruction under Gilmore Commission.”
Having
seen the weakness of the OHS, Senator Lieberman gained a co-sponsor to
introduce S.1534 which will establish the Department of National Homeland
Security (DNHS). Together with Senator Arlen Specter (R), Senator Lieberman
sent the proposed bill to the US Senate on October 11, 2001, which was read
twice and referred to the Committee on Governmental Affairs. The Bill 1534,
among others, will transfer the authorities, functions, personnel and assets of
several agencies in the federal government that deal with security and disaster
operations. The Agencies were affected were the
FEMA, United States Custom Service, Border Patrol of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS), United States Coast Guard, Critical
Infrastructure Office and the Institute for Information Infrastructure
Protection of the Department of Commerce, and both the National Infrastructure
Protection Center and the National Domestic Preparedness Office of the FBI.
A
year later, on May 2, 2002, after refining and widening the scope of his
original resolution, Congressman Thornberry joined with Senator Lieberman to
introduce H.R. 4660 and S. 2452 that will establish the Department of National
Homeland Security and the National Office for Combating Terrorism. Thornberry
got 40 co-sponsors and Lieberman got 5 co-sponsors after two Senate amendments
in the proposed bill.
On June 6, 2002, President
Bush appeared on the national TV for a
televised address from the White House to call for the members of the Congress to create a Cabinet-level Department
of Homeland Security, which was envisioned to be the central agency that will
consolidate the domestic security apparatus against threats of terrorism.
Leaders from both parties accepted the announcement in a positive manner and promised to work a
bipartisan bill to make sure of speedy passage in the US Congress. In response
to the President’s request, Representative Richard Armey (R) introduced H.R.
5005 on June 24, 20002 that will establish the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), and for other purposes.
