House chairman plans overhaul of Homeland Security Act

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox on Friday said he plans to offer a bill by summer's end that would make substantive revisions in the law that created the Homeland Security Department.

"We're going to do a bill before the end of the summer that is non-technical, that is substantive, and that is a re-visitation of the Homeland Security Act," the California Republican told reporters. "Whether that's a slender little bill or a big fat one is entirely a function of need."

Under his own initiative, Cox wrote about a month ago to chairmen and ranking Democrats of every House committee asking for suggestions to amend the act, and he has received some answers. Cox said the act warrants a review "now that we've had time to sleep on it," to fix problems made in haste. "It is the largest reorganization of the federal government in my lifetime, and it was done very quickly."

Technically, the whole act is open for review, Cox said, "but I don't want to give the impression that everything's up for grabs. ... That's not the case."

The bill Cox is considering is different from the measure, H.R. 1416, passed recently by his committee that would make "technical corrections" in the Homeland Security Act. That bill may go to the House floor as soon as next week, he said.

More substantive problems with the act have been identified that would not have been eligible for the "technical corrections" bill, he said. For instance, he might seek to clarify the roles of federal departments related to homeland security, especially the Defense Department.

Cox also stressed that the interagency Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) created by the Bush administration and housed at the CIA is not a substitute for the Homeland Security's statutory requirement to build its own analytical capability.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge this week repeatedly said his agency would fulfill its requirement. The department will be one of several entities contributing to TTIC, which opened its doors on Thursday, but it also will conduct its own analysis under the information analysis and infrastructure protection directorate.

On Friday, TTIC issued an advisory about terrorist use of small aircraft, Cox said.

In his oversight role, Cox said the measure of whether the department is fulfilling the mandate would be based on its capabilities, not on how many staffers there are doing it. The department is not in compliance yet, he said.

On the issue of Homeland Security missing deadlines in its first months, Cox said, "There is an informal grace period measured in days and weeks, not years." He added that he understands there have been "short-term exigencies."