Ridge to testify, within limits, on Cabinet creation plan

President Bush Friday affirmed his intention to dispatch Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to Capitol Hill as an advocate for Bush's plan to establish a new Cabinet-level Homeland Security Department.

But in a twist likely to cause at least some confusion in Congress, Ridge said today that although he will "formally testify" about the new agency, he would continue to refuse to offer testimony pertaining to his current duties as White House homeland security adviser.

"The president has directed me to testify not as an adviser ... but to go to the Hill to testify--to formally testify--about the reorganization of the executive branch, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security," Ridge told reporters at the White House. "The testimony on the Hill will not be as an adviser--there will not be any discussion relative to the advice and counsel that may have been shared with the president."

Ridge asserted that Bush believes it is important to "preserve the prerogative" of a president to make his advisers "accessible" to Congress but not make them "subject to the call of the chair."

Ridge, who spoke following a White House meeting between Bush and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, said he will be on Capitol Hill during the "weeks and months ahead."

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who was at the White House session, indicated it would not be difficult to meld legislation already passed by his committee and with Bush's new plan.

"The good news is that the proposal that the president made [Thursday] is very similar to the bill" already reported out of his committee, Lieberman said. Praising Bush for offering his proposal, Lieberman added, "I think the most important thing is to get this done quickly."

While noting that the leadership will have the final say, Lieberman indicated that his panel would "at least hold a hearing or two" on Bush's plan, and then negotiations would begin to meld the committee bill with the president's proposal.

Lieberman said he would likely urge Bush to maintain a separate "statutory" office of counterterrorism "in the White House with coordinating authority ongoing over the intelligence communities and the FBI, but of course, accountable directly to the president."

Bush, who spoke just before the meeting, appeared eager to dispel the notion that the decision to create the new agency was made in a "slapdash" manner as criticism grows about the government's pre-Sept. 11 actions.

"I have always been--ever since we first got going--I've been exploring this idea," he said.

Bush added that the new agency would provide savings by combining agencies now located throughout the government while ensuring that "accountability is clear."

Among others at the meeting were Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-Fla., Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Reps. Rob Portman, R- Ohio, Jane Harman, D-Calif., Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Mac Thornberry, R-Texas.