Cost of building homeland agency estimated at $3 billion

A new federal study estimates that President Bush's proposed Homeland Security Department would cost more than $3 billion to implement, despite a presidential pledge that the plan would not "grow" the size of the federal government.

The five-year cost estimate, released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office, is likely to rouse conservative Republicans and budget hawks --making it more difficult for Congress to approve the president's plan by the August recess. Further, the costs of the new department are expected to continue to grow as the proposal works its way through the legislative channels on Capitol Hill.

The legislation being considered by the House Government Reform Committee today, for example, is twice as long as the plan unveiled by the White House last month.

The CBO said that the $3 billion that it would cost to implement from fiscal 2003 to 2007 includes $150 million to "establish and administer" the new Cabinet-level department in 2003, growing to $225 million a year thereafter. Various other new homeland defense programs will cost another $450 million a year, the CBO found.

The total figure does not include the costs of running the dozens of federal programs that would be transferred to the new department. Those programs would cost about $20 billion in fiscal 2002, expanding to $31 billion in 2007, the CBO said.

When Bush unveiled the homeland security plan last month, he predicted that any costs of creating the department would be offset by savings realized from consolidating homeland defense programs under one roof.

But the hefty price tag could make it difficult for Congress to approve the plan before the August recess because it will draw fire from conservatives.

The same day that the CBO released the report, the fiscally conservative Republican Study Committee created an 11-member task force to ensure that Congress does not add to the size of the federal government when approving the new department.

"All too often, Congress has used similar 'overhauls' as an excuse to expand an already bloated federal bureaucracy," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., the chairman of the new task force.

The CBO report also came as three key standing committees in the House--as well as the House's select panel on homeland security--prepare to examine president's plan Thursday.

Also Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., rebuffed GOP charges that Democrats have excluded Republicans from the process of crafting homeland security legislation in the Senate.

"One of [Lieberman's] trademarks is that he works across the aisle with Republicans in order to reach compromises so that he can actually get things done," his spokeswoman said. "He has done this is in the homeland security realm as well."

She noted that Lieberman sent letters in mid June to committee chairmen and the ranking members seeking input into the bill.

She also said that Lieberman has met personally with a number of Republicans on the issue, including Governmental Affairs ranking member Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

Earlier Wednesday, a number of Senate Republicans and members of the Bush administration quietly voiced concern that they were being excluded from the process.