Bush signs homeland bill; fills top jobs in department

President Bush Monday signed legislation establishing a Homeland Security Department and announced he will nominate White House homeland security adviser Tom Ridge to be its first secretary.

Bush also announced that Navy Secretary Gordon England will be nominated for the post of deputy secretary and that Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Asa Hutchinson, a former House member, will be nominated to serve as undersecretary for border and transportation security.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer pledged the Bush administration would work cooperatively with Congress next year as it considers whether to strip out last-minute provisions added to the bill that would protect vaccine makers and offer other benefits to businesses.

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.; House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas; House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas; Senate Minority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla.; and Reps. Rob Portman, R- Ohio; and Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif.; were among those on stage as Bush signed the bill.

President Bush now has up to 60 days to submit a reorganization plan that will serve as a blueprint for creating the department. He can begin transferring agencies 90 days after the plan is put forward. All agencies must be transferred within a year of Bush's submission of the reorganization plan.

Fleischer today said it would therefore be "at least a year" before the department is fully up to speed. But he said it would become "operational" piecemeal as various agencies move in.

"There's no question the new agency will go through growing pains," Fleischer said, but he denied there would be any diminution of security during the transition.