House Democrats seek big increases in homeland budget, staffing

A report by House Democrats released Tuesday argues that hundreds of billions of additional dollars and an expansion of the federal workforce are needed to eliminate terrorist threats to the United States.

The report, prepared by Reps. Jim Turner, D-Texas, and Jane Harman, D-Calif., includes more than 100 recommendations. Turner is ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee and Harman is ranking member of the Permanent Select Intelligence Committee. She also serves on the Homeland Security Committee.

"We don't purport to say we have every idea here that needs to be implemented, nor that our ideas are perfect," Turner said. "But we do suggest that we must make a commitment to winning the war on terror and that this plan is the way to go about it."

Turner estimated that many of the recommendations in the report could be carried out if the government spent $440 billion over the next 10 years, which he characterized as 10 percent of the projected cost of tax cuts in that period.

The report also calls for an expansion of the federal workforce in several areas. It recommends increasing the number of U.S. special operations forces to 100,000, doubling the number of FBI counterterrorism field agents, doubling the number of border agents, and adding 60,000 Army soldiers -- with particular emphasis on forces used in stability operations.

The report argues for a three-pronged approach to fighting terrorism: more aggressive and smarter initiatives to track down terrorists; increased efforts to protect the country; and attempts to prevent the rise of future terrorism by building diplomatic, educational and economic bridges with the Arab world.

Harman said the report is significant because it "offers a comprehensive strategy for winning, not just waging, the war on terrorism."

"We still have the squeaky wheel theory of homeland security: If you yell loud enough, maybe you'll get some funding," she said.

Other recommendations in the report include:

• Create a director of national intelligence.
• Secure all unprotected nuclear material worldwide and destroy all chemical weapons by 2010.
• Screen 100 percent of cargo containers entering the country for nuclear materials.
• Hire and train an additional 500 Arabic speakers at the State Department over the next three years.
• Increase the Peace Corps to 25,000 volunteers, and create a U.S. Reconstruction Corps to deploy to post-conflict zones.
• Triple funding for U.S. democratization efforts worldwide.
• Promote the idea of one year of national service for all young Americans.

Turner and Harman said some of the funding could come from redirecting money that is spent on the military.

"We are so far ahead than the rest of the world in what we are trying to do that it is hard for me to imagine we'll ever be challenged anytime in the near future in terms of our capabilities," Turner said. "But we've reached a level of sophistication and investment in military capability that completely overshadows the efforts that we're making for the kinds of things that are in this document."