Policy Formulation: The Key Government Players (Creation of the Department of Homeland Security)

(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.

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.

Implementation Stage: Integration of Government Agencies (Creation of the Department of Homenad Security)

(US Customs and Border Protection, from Wikimedia Commons)

            After President Bush had signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the H.R. 5005 became Public Law no. 107-296. After the policy formulation has transpired, the policy implementation came next. Peters said, “ Once a piece of legislation or a regulation has been accepted as a legitimate public law, in some ways the easiest portion of the policymaking process has already transpired, for government must then put the legislation into effect.” The effect of the legislation established the DHS, which created the newest and second largest executive department second to the size of Department of Defense. The policy of the government on anti-terrorism has now been implemented through the DHS.

            The DHS is consists of four line directorates, which are the Border and Transportation Security (BTS), Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR), Science and Technology (ST), and the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP). The US Secret Service and the US Coast Guard remained intact and report directly to the DHS while the INS Adjudications and Benefits Program reports directly to the Deputy Secretary.

            The BTS is composed of the US Customs Service (Treasury), The Immigration and Naturalization Service (part) (Justice), The Federal Protective Service, Transportation Security Administration (Transportation), Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (Treasury), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (part)Agriculture), and the Office for Domestic Preparedness (Justice).

            The EPR is comprised of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Strategic National Stockpile and the National Disaster Medical System (HHS), Nuclear Incident Response Team (Energy), Domestic Emergency Support Teams (Justice) and the National Domestic Preparedness Office (FBI).

            The ST directorate includes the CBRN Countermeasures Programs (Energy), Environmental Measurements Laboratory (Energy), National BW Defense Analysis Center (Defense), and the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (Agriculture).

            Lastly, the IAIP was formed from Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (Commerce), Federal Computer Incident Response Center (GSA), National Communications System (Defense), National Infrastructure Protection Center (FBI) and the Energy Security and Assurance Program (Energy).