Ridge vows to set performance targets for Homeland Security

Tom Ridge, President Bush's choice to head the Homeland Security Department, said at his Senate confirmation hearing Friday that he would hold the agency to strict performance targets.

At the hearing, before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Ridge pledged to work with employees to improve management at the new department. "We will solicit advice from men and women who work in the new department … about how to improve day-to-day operations that they have been involved in for years, if not decades," he said.

Ridge also said he would set performance standards to measure the success of homeland security efforts. "I will insist on measurable improvements from each department," he said. "We … need to know how effective we have become." Ridge also pledged to create a merit-based personnel system.

Ridge declined to divulge the location for the new department, or to discuss the formal reorganization plan for assimilating 22 existing federal agencies into the one department. He said both issues are pending approval by President Bush. The department's home likely will be in northern Virginia, according to reports.

Ridge said the administration had examined the information technology budgets of all agencies to be incorporated into the department and concluded that current funding levels are adequate for "wiring us together." The department will use commercially available IT integration technology.

Ridge said the primary responsibility for foreign intelligence analysis would remain at the CIA, and that Homeland Security would further analyze data to determine whether to issue public warnings about potential terrorist attacks.

Members of the Governmental Affairs Committee expressed unanimous support for Ridge, with several saying they hoped the full Senate would quickly vote to confirm him. The full Senate is expected to take up the nomination next week. The department is scheduled to begin formal operations Jan. 24.

While praising Ridge, Governmental Affairs' ranking member, Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.-a newly announced 2004 presidential contender-did take a verbal poke at the Bush administration's response to the threat of terrorism. Lieberman said the administration's effort has been "too weak, its vision has been blurry and its willingness to confront the status quo, including with resources, has been too limited."

New Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, urged Ridge not to overlook 2 million state and local officials dealing with the threat of terrorism. Collins noted that creation of the Homeland Security Department "offers no assurance that the new department will coordinate and communicate effectively with state and local first responders." Ridge pledged to create a "one-stop shop" for state and local governments to apply for first responder grants.

This story includes information from reports in CongressDaily and National Journal's Technology Daily.