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CNN Live Today

Congress Considers Creating New Cabinet Department

Aired June 11, 2002 - 13:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The grunt work of creating a whole new Cabinet department began today on Capitol Hill. CNN congressional correspondent Kate Snow will tell us about that. She's been involved with it all.

Hi Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, watching a lot of activity up here on the Hill today. You mentioned homeland security; they're trying to start executing this plan that we've heard so much about to reorganize the government. The way they're doing that today is with a hearing. This is the first hearing on the subject happening right now before a House panel.

They're talking about the issue in principle, but they don't yet have the plan that the Bush administration has written up. And lawmakers saying they expect that plan to be on their desks up here on the Hill within about two or three weeks.

Meantime, House leaders talking about, how are they going to get this through Congress in the quickest way possible, you know, because there is no separate Cabinet-level agency right now. There's also no separate committee for homeland security up here. And internally that creates some problems, and they have to figure out how to route it through, get it through here as fast as possible.

Now, as hey look forward, there are other lawmakers today looking backward. Among them the members of the joint inquiry, Intelligence Committee, looking into 9/11 and intelligence failures of 9/11. They're meeting again today. You'll remember they met last week behind closed doors.

Again today behind closed doors, we do know they had there first witness today, a man named Richard Clarke. He is currently a counterterrorism expert with President Bush. He formerly served under President Clinton; a man with a lot of experience.

They've told us that they wanted to start with witness who could really lay out the groundwork for them and look, not just back just, you know, a couple of years, but back into the '80s, mid-'80s, to look at what the flaws have been, what the weaknesses have been, and establish some of the problems.

This of course, is the key committee looking into 9/11. But there was another group up here today, Kyra, talking about another way to look at 9/11. A group of people, on the nine month anniversary of 9/11, about 200-or-so family members of the victims 9/11. And they gathered for a rally just outside the Capitol. Their point is that it's not enough to have a congressional committee looking into this.

They're saying they want an independent commission made up of people who are experts in the field, not necessarily members of Congress, to do an investigation on what went wrong.

One woman spoke out very emotionally this morning, the mother of three. She lost her husband in the World Trade Center.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MINDY KLEINBERG, WIDOW OF WTC VICTIM: We would like to call upon the country's foremost experts to lead the investigation. Let no stone remain unturned. We are asking you, America, to stand behind us. Please, pick up the phone, call your senators, call your congressmen, tell them that you want to be safe.

Tell them that you want an independent investigation. We don't ever want to ask the question again: "How could this have happened."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: And we should point out, Kyra, that most of the lawmakers who also gathered at that rally were Democrats. There were a couple of Republicans, but this is primarily a Democratic focus up here on the Hill.

They've been pushing for this independent panel. Most Republicans are supporting the White House point of view, which is that it's already being investigated by the Intelligence Committee that we just mentioned, and that's the appropriate place, rather than having duplicative efforts going on -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Kate Snow, thanks so much.

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