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U.S. Response: Tom Ridge Takes Office Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge was sworn in yesterday as the new head of the Office of Homeland Security (see GSN, Sept. 21). Questions have been raised, however, over the scope of his new position and what powers he will have. “What is homeland defense? Everyone’s in favor of it but how will we recognize it when we have it?” asked John Pike, head of Globalsecurity.org. “Where does homeland defense leave off and law enforcement begin? His biggest challenge is going to be defining homeland defense broadly enough to actually accomplish something” (Simon/Piller, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 8). President George W. Bush’s executive order creating the Office of Homeland Security outlines its mission as developing and coordinating a national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist acts. The order details the powers Ridge will have to accomplish this, including identifying priorities for the gathering and analysis of information on terrorism and reviewing federal agencies’ budgets for antiterrorism efforts. The order also creates a Homeland Security Council consisting of the president, vice-president, secretaries of the treasury, defense, transportation, and health and human services, the attorney general and the directors of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FBI and CIA (White House release, Oct. 8). Ridge’s new office has a $25 million start-up budget and a staff of about 100, mainly from other agencies. It also shares a corridor in the West Wing with the Oval Office, giving Ridge proximity to the president. Legislators worry, however, if this close proximity will be a good enough substitute for the legislative authority to compel U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to change his budget or CIA Director George Tenet to refocus his intelligence efforts, according to the New York Times. “We must be task-oriented,” Ridge said during his swearing-in ceremony. “The only turf we should be worried about protecting is the turf we stand on” (Becker/Sciolino, New York Times, Oct. 9). While Ridge may have the power to oversee and advise federal agencies’ antiterrorism budgets, some experts fear that he may have little real authority, citing the example of former drug czar Barry McCaffrey. In one incident, McCaffrey refused to certify the Pentagon’s budget over a dispute on funding for antidrug efforts, which set off an embarrassing public spat with then-U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, according to the Wall Street Journal. The executive order also does little to say how Ridge could compel the CIA to cooperate on intelligence efforts, or how disputes over intelligence priorities would be resolved, according to the Wall Street Journal. Legislators have criticized Bush for creating the position through executive order, rather than by legislation, which would have given Ridge formal budgetary authority and a greater stature in the Cabinet. “The problem is that Ridge has no carrots or sticks,” said Paul Light, a political scientist at the Brookings Institution. “The only authority Tom Ridge has in the executive branch is the authority to tell the president that no one is listening, and he needs much more than that,” Light said (Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8).
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