Homeland Security review won't result in formal report

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday that the departmentwide review he commissioned more than two months ago is winding down, but no report or printed document will be publicly released.

Chertoff said the groups working on the review are on track to begin reporting their findings to him by the end of May. He will meet with the various groups during the next few weeks to discuss suggestions. He said some portions of their review will "probably" be unveiled in early June, but other aspects will take longer.

"This is not going to result in unveiling a printed report," he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "[Instead, it's] going to be a template and a strategy for going forward over the next months across the board, dealing with all the missions of the department and all the department's responsibilities."

He added: "The purpose was not to produce a single document that could then be published and sent around. It was really for me and the leadership team at the department to be able to look across the board at what we're doing, figure out what the gaps are, where we need to make some changes, and work out some substantive policies."

Chertoff announced in early March that he had ordered the review, only weeks after he took over the reins of the sprawling, two-year-old department. He said the review enabled department officials to think beyond what is acceptable or conventional and to discuss what they would do differently.

"My impression is there's a lot of energy and excitement in the department about doing this," he said. "I've actually started to sit down and get a preview of what the findings and the suggestions are, and I think we will produce some very interesting and important results in terms of mapping our next months of activity."