House homeland panel chairman has modest agenda

As he seeks to write the first authorization bill for homeland security programs, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., appears to favor a modest proposal without any significant initiatives that would cross into other House committees' turf and upset fellow Republican chairmen.

"Chris assured me the panel would not cross into my jurisdiction," said House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., one of several chairmen of permanent standing committees whom Cox has consulted in recent weeks.

Davis, who has spoken out against giving Cox's "select" committee the same standing as the major House committees, added that he now "feels better" about the issue, thanks to Cox's assurances.

Indeed, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, who heads the Homeland Security Cybersecurity, Science, and Research and Development Subcommittee, said committee Republicans were simply seeking to authorize existing programs within the Homeland Security Department.

"We want to model it after the defense authorization process," he said. "There are an endless number of controversial issues, but we can't do everything in one bill."

When asked about his effort to produce an authorization bill, Cox reiterated past statements that a single House committee was needed to authorize and oversee homeland security programs.

But he discounted the need for a permanent standing committee, an idea also rejected by many House committee chairmen, several of whom sit on the select committee. "A select committee could do that," Cox said.

Cox said Tuesday he would like House leaders next year to make his panel permanent in some form, with "real" jurisdiction.

"If Congress isn't set up for us to have primary oversight over the third largest Cabinet-level department, then future bureaucrats will have that many skirts to hide behind," said Cox after a briefing with reporters.

Homeland Security ranking member Jim Turner, D-Texas, disagrees and is planning to prod Cox into a more activist posture.

Turner told CongressDaily he plans to introduce six separate bills in the upcoming weeks to publicly debate language he would like in the authorization bill. The provisions include changes to existing initiatives at the department for port, aviation and rail security and biodefense, among others.

Turner, whose signature would add a bipartisan tag to a possible permanent panel and help push the bill through the committee, also said he would wait to decide whether to co-author the bill until after he saw a final draft.

Cox, who has been under increasing pressure to reconcile competing interests on his 15-month-old select committee, has been playing it safe, declining even to say if he hopes to mark up a bill by the Memorial Day recess.

One compelling reason is that the most senior Republicans on his panel are the chairmen of several standing committees, including Davis, Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla.; Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y.; Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.; and Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska. "I do not believe the House needs a committee devoted exclusively to homeland security," Boehlert argued in prepared testimony on the issue last month.

Sensenbrenner wrote 68 pages of testimony against relinquishing control to a panel that does not have the necessary experience and expertise.

At the same hearing, Cox argued for permanent status, but stopped short of fighting for jurisdiction. "It is important to craft the right balance between the jurisdictional responsibility of a new Homeland Security Committee and the very legitimate interests of the dozen committees that have historically had jurisdiction over" the department's legacy agencies, Cox said last month.

Both Cox and Turner have argued that while the other committees have held hearings on their respective jurisdictional issues, one committee needs to oversee how the Homeland Security Department fits together.

While aides declined to give more specific details on initial drafts, they said the minority and majority staffs have agreed so far on intelligence, science and technology and cybersecurity provisions.

One aide questioned how much the committee could do overall before this legislative session ends. "There's just not time," said the aide.

To show House Republican leaders the panel's prowess to push an authorization bill through Congress, Cox ultimately needs to convince his Senate counterpart to take up the legislation.

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Cox plan to meet this week to discuss strategy. A Collins aide said if the House could pass a bill, then the Senate panel would "do everything that we could to pass one."

However, the aide also said Collins is "not optimistic" that the Governmental Affairs Committee could report out a bill that would get through the Senate, because Collins has higher priorities such as postal legislation.

"It's very unlikely we'd be able to mark it up before Memorial Day," said a Collins aide.

Cox also could break up the authorization bill to help the Republican majority win a few legislative victories on homeland security in the heat of an election year.

Both Cox and Turner characterized the process in the initial stages. "We're very, very early in the process," Cox said Friday.