Task force urges consolidated security oversight in Congress

A task force on Friday recommended that both the House and Senate consolidate jurisdiction over the government's third-largest department by creating permanent committees in each body to oversee the Homeland Security Department.

The task force of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Business Executives in National Security released a report arguing that more than three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "Congress has failed to remove a major impediment to effective homeland security: the balkanized and dysfunctional oversight of the department."

Seventy-nine committees and subcommittees currently have some jurisdiction over Homeland Security, giving 412 of the 435 House members and all 100 senators some say, the report said. The task force, which was co-chaired by former House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., and former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., concluded that such oversight has depleted the effectiveness of the department's leadership.

"The cross-jurisdiction of so many committees to authorize, have oversight and appropriate could never work in a cohesive way," Rudman said. "We are putting an enormous strain on the leadership of that department."

In a Sept. 14 hearing at the House Homeland Security Committee, outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the relationship between Congress and the department would be improved "if there was an effort within Congress to reduce the number of committees and subcommittees that have oversight over this department."

To streamline that oversight, the task force recommended that both chambers establish powerful, permanent committees with jurisdiction over all components of the department in order to craft effective legislation and hold the department accountable. "To operate efficient and sound and effective leadership is a key element in congressional oversight," Foley said.

The House panel, which lost its temporary authority at the end of the 108th Congress that ended this week, also recommended to the House Rules Committee on Sept. 30 that a permanent committee be created with full jurisdiction over federal agencies' homeland security functions.

Consolidated jurisdiction is "absolutely critical to this country," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. He added that the House will work toward that goal no later than Jan. 4, 2005, when the House will adopt its rules for the 109th Congress.

"Change is daunting and challenging," Rudman said. "There are issues of turf that people do not want to give up."

While support for the move exists in the House, less progress has been made in the Senate. A Senate task force recommended reforms that would centralize authority, but the report from CSIS and the business executives said "vested interests rallied to dismantle this plan piece by piece."

California Republican Christopher Cox, the chairman of House Homeland Security, agreed with the task force's recommendation to consolidate oversight by reducing bureaucracy. "There is no time to be last in homeland security's mission," Cox said, because "every moment counts" when protecting the nation.