Homeland security office a 'toothless tiger,' senator says

The White House Office of Homeland Security must be given more power to ensure that more than 40 federal agencies effectively coordinate their information systems to prevent and respond to future terrorist threats, the chairman of a key Senate subcommittee said Wednesday.

"Each agency and bureau needs to think beyond its own functions, beyond its own databases, and work to connect to other departments," said New York Democrat Charles Schumer, who chairs the Judiciary Administrative Oversight and the Courts Subcommittee. "It's very hard to do this on your own. ... That's why we need an agency that's responsible for making sure it happens."

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge is developing a comprehensive national strategy for coordinating homeland defense efforts of federal agencies and state and local governments. But because Ridge has no budgetary authority and no power to enforce his recommendations, Schumer said the Office of Homeland Security, while a step in the right direction, is akin to a "toothless tiger."

"Everyone has tremendous respect for Tom Ridge, but he needs the power to carry out his mandate--protecting the American people," Schumer said.

During a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing last week, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels said the White House might be willing to give Ridge's office more authority if Ridge's national strategy, which he expects to release by mid-year, includes such a recommendation.

"If [the White House] were to propose that, it would pass the House and Senate like a hot knife through butter," Schumer said Wednesday.

Leon Panetta, who served as President Clinton's chief of staff, agreed that unless the director of homeland security is given direct authority over the agencies involved in defending the nation, it will be difficult to coordinate their efforts.

"Make no mistake about it: The biggest problem to centralizing command control here is the basic culture of the federal bureaucracy," Panetta told Schumer's panel. "It is my experience that absent a clear line of authority and a chain of command, the sharing of information within the executive branch is haphazard at best."

Sharing data and intelligence with other agencies also is extremely complicated, according to Robert Jordan, director of the FBI's information-sharing task force.

"Over the last several years, much has improved, but this seemingly simple issue is actually a complex myriad of technology, legal, policy and cultural issues," Jordan said. He added that information sharing has been getting "sustained, high-level attention" from FBI officials since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., co-authored legislation that aims to boost those efforts by establishing a Cabinet-level homeland security department. But despite growing bipartisan support for such a move, not all lawmakers back the idea.

"This is a matter of great complexity ... but I am not convinced that we need to create a large, permanent Cabinet-level or even semi-Cabinet -level [homeland security] agency at this point," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the subcommittee's ranking Republican.