Lieberman Bashes Bush’s Handling of Homeland Security
WASHINGTON – As the Department of Homeland Security nears its first anniversary amid hype of its accomplishments, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman said the new agency has fallen well short of its goals. “So much of the hard work still lies ahead,” he said.
Lieberman, who spearheaded the effort to create the department, blamed lack of foresight and guidance for the agency’s inefficiencies.
“While we have gained a new Cabinet member and a new governmental entity, we do not yet have what the department was truly meant to provide-forceful administration, vision and leadership on homeland security,” Lieberman said in a statement.
In a speech Monday at George Washington University , DHS Secretary Tom Ridge praised the work the department has done since it began operations last March.
“In the space of one year, the men and women of this new department have achieved a great deal to secure this country,” Ridge said. “It has been quite an undertaking … and resulted in a country more secure and better prepared than it has ever been before.”
Lieberman disagrees. “The administration’s failings on homeland security betray a dangerous mix of overstatement and inattention,” he said.
President Bush, he said “appears oblivious to the many, critical vulnerabilities that remain and the lack of discernable progress in key areas. And he has steadfastly refused to provide sufficient resources in his budget to get the job done.”
Critics agree the department’s work is only beginning.
“This agency is a disaster waiting to happen, it’s so vulnerable,” said Gordon Adams, policy director at George Washington University ‘s Homeland Security Policy Institute, which works with the department to provide research.
“Their trouble is they need to focus on everything,” he said. “They have to create a department and run one at the same time.”
Dr. Tee Guidotti, chairman of the university’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, said a major problem has been integrating 180,000 federal employees from 22 agencies into a single department.
“The [reorganization] they have had to do has been overwhelming,” Guidotti said. “Things have gone slowly, with an exceptional amount of confusion [because] they have had to integrate so many different cultures with contradictory ways of working. They have had a very hard time.”
Brian Ruehrkasse, a spokesman for the department, acknowledged that getting a new department to run smoothly will take time. But, he said, “This isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon.”
“It has been an important accomplishment in the department’s first year to bring together all of the 22 component agencies and to provide the men and women of Homeland Security with new tools and resources to better do their jobs,” Ruehrkasse said.
“We understand there still is a long way to go.”
Frank Cilluffo, George Washington University ‘s associate vice president for homeland security and a member of the federal department’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, said time and experience will allay concerns about the department. “I think you are starting to see some of those [components] coming together,” he said. “All things said and done, it’s moving along pretty well.”
