Congress urged to trim agencies from homeland security department

President Bush's proposed homeland security department is too big to be effective and will present enormous management challenges unless Congress removes some agencies from the mega-department, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution. The report, written by eight Brookings' fellows, endorses much of the Bush proposal, including the creation of a border and transportation security division and a center to analyze terrorist threats. But the report argues for at least temporarily keeping the Federal Emergency Management Agency independent of the new department and delaying the move of offices researching countermeasures to chemical, biological, and nuclear attack until the White House crafts an overall strategy for homeland security research and development. Including these agencies in the new department now would only make the gargantuan task of reorganizing more difficult, according to the report. "The danger is that top managers will be preoccupied for months, if not years, with getting the reorganization right-thus giving insufficient attention to their real job: taking concrete action to counter the terrorist threat at home." According to Brookings, FEMA should initially remain outside the new department while its managers incorporate the government's various emergency preparedness and first responder training programs into the agency, a task that requires adding units from the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services. Managing this process while shifting to the new department would place a great strain on the agency, the report concluded. "Moving it into a new department, at a time when its new management is busily trying to mold many different entities, cultures, and capabilities into a new, coherent whole, is unlikely to be the best way to improve FEMA's ability to manage the emergency response function," the report said. The Brookings analysts also argued that the Homeland Security Department needs better access to intelligence than it would have under the Bush proposal. Under legislation submitted by the White House, the department would need presidential approval to view "raw" intelligence data-a recipe for poor information-sharing, the report said. "Homeland Security will have access only if the secretary requests and the President approves-but how is the secretary to request information if he or she doesn't know it exists?" The report also urged Congress to consider using legislation currently before Congress as a template for the personnel rules of the new department. Brookings singled out the Federal Workforce Management Improvement Act and legislation to reform the presidential appointment process as bills that could help the department create a better personnel system. Brookings also cautioned that the proposed department combines agencies with stellar management, such as the Coast Guard, with agencies that have chronic management problems, such as the Immigration and Naturalization Service. On Tuesday, Customs Service Commissioner Robert Bonner dismissed Brookings' negative description of Customs management, which was based on Government Executive's 1999 Federal Performance Review, where Customs received an overall management grade of C. "I couldn't agree less with the Brookings Institution in its characterization of the U.S. Customs Service," Bonner said.