Homeland Security Department may take years to create

Comptroller General David Walker Tuesday presented Congress with a reality check: Getting the proposed Homeland Security Department up to speed could take years to accomplish and require a lot more money than anticipated.

Walker, who heads the General Accounting Office, handed legislators a new 30-page report on President Bush's plan to consolidate some 22 agencies with 170,000 people into a new department with an anticipated first-year cost of $37.5 billion. The Senate Budget Committee's staff director has already cited that figure as about $9 billion too low.

In a no-nonsense report, Walker told Senate Judiciary Technology, Terrorism and Government Information Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and her panel that Congress has a "unique opportunity" to set up the agency to protect borders and guard against terrorism. But he cautioned that it will take "substantial time" and effort and "additional resources" to do the job properly.

"Numerous complicated issues will need to be resolved in the short term, including a harmonization of information technology systems, human capital systems, the physical location of people and other assets, and many other factors," Walker said. "Implementation of the new department will be an extremely complex task and will ultimately take years."

In response to Feinstein's questions, Walker suggested Congress start with recommendations of a terrorism commission headed by former Sens. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., and Gary Hart,D-Colo., then use GAO's recommendations to evaluate the difficulties and also consider a White House office of homeland security with Senate confirmation of its director.

Rudman, whose report suggested a department with fewer consolidated agencies, called Bush's larger plan "a sound proposal, but it can be improved by Congress and it probably will be."