Former Defense secretary calls for more Homeland Security funding

The nation's homeland security agencies need more resources, funding and attention, former Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday, as he urged citizens to debate how much of their privacy they are willing to cede in the name of security.

Cohen, speaking at the Excellence in Government conference in Washington, said federal officials are aware of many weaknesses in the nation's defenses and are working to fix them. He praised the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States for its work analyzing the country's security lapses. The Excellence in Government conference is sponsored in part by Government Executive.

"I think we are better off, but only marginally so," Cohen said. "Should we have greater resources devoted to homeland security? The answer is, absolutely … we are not spending nearly enough and we are not devoting enough attention to what we have to do to protect ourselves."

Cohen was the Defense secretary from 1997-2001 under President Bill Clinton. He was the first elected official selected from another party to serve in a president's cabinet. Before his service at the Pentagon, Cohen was a Republican senator from Maine.

Some lawmakers and homeland security officials have said that funding is limited for vital agencies, despite the ongoing campaign against terrorist groups around the world. In June, while discussing an ongoing hiring freeze for federal border patrol agents, Homeland Security Department spokesman Dennis Murphy said, "Our budgets are tight."

Homeland Security officials said the hiring freeze was initially put in place because of fears of a funding shortage that were brought on by a faulty accounting system. The freeze was kept in place, however, because recruiting goals had been reached, according to Murphy. Lawmakers and Border Patrol disputed that contention, saying that more agents are desperately needed.

In his speech Thursday, Cohen also called for a national debate on the clash between civil liberties and national security.

"We're going to see more and more technology called upon to intrude upon our privacy," he said. "How much intrusion into our privacy are we going to accept?"

There are many important and unresolved domestic security questions and, he said, "It is important that we debate these issues now, before we have another attack."

"Who decides who is going to be watched? Who makes these decisions, and what kind of oversight is there?" asked Cohen, adding that one of the federal government's primary roles is to protect its citizens, which has led to a clash. "The role of government also is to protect your civil liberties. These two roles are now coming into conflict."