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The US Department of Homeland Security: From the Ground Up

In Part 1 of our series, we investigate the context, fears and executive orders that shaped the formation of DHS

It didn't take long for some in Congress to propose a different homeland security framework. Three days after the creation of OHS, Sens. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) introduced legislation to establish a Cabinet-level department of homeland security, based largely on the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman Commission (similar legislation was introduced in the House). In a press statement, Specter said, "As a practical matter, it is impossible for Gov. Ridge to go to the president every time there is a turf battle. There is a need for governmental structure in regards to homeland defense. That is the job of the Congress, and this legislation provides that structure." However, lawmakers held off on pushing the legislation through, hoping the administration would act on its own.Holding Bush's Feet to the FireThe pressure on the Bush administration to make OHS a Cabinet-level department continued unabated during the next few months. Ridge did submit to some informal questioning before Congress on the administration's progress in securing the homeland, but they weren't official hearings. In the meantime, frustration mounted on the Hill, and the House and Senate held a number of hearings on homeland security, prompting lawmakers to take matters into their own hands. In April 2002, at a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, senatorsLieberman, Specter and Bob Graham (D-Fla.)submitted a bipartisan proposal to create a National Department for Homeland Defense, which would combine the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Customs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and three smaller critical infrastructure offices.

Meanwhile, in the nation's press and from congressional hearings, new details were emerging daily, such as those involving the Phoenix and Minnesota FBI agents whose warnings about Middle Easterners studying at flight schools went unheeded.

As pressure on the administration grew, the White House launched a top-secret plan for a new Cabinet-level department. Bush's resistance to such an entity had begun to fade. Ridge had quietly been pushing the administration for months to create a more powerful, centralized agency. And Congress might have preempted the White House with its own planbad PR for a president trying to assure the public that the administration was doing all it could to protect the homeland. "If it was going to happen, it was going to happen on their terms," says Donald Kettl, professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and director of the project on federalism and homeland security at the Century Foundation.