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CNN Live At Daybreak

Wake-Up Call, Homeland Security

Aired November 26, 2002 - 06:06   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.


CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The 90-day clock is ticking for the government's 15th cabinet department to get up and running. President Bush signed the homeland security measure yesterday. It folds part of 22 existing agencies into a huge department with more than 170,000 employees.
Mr. Bush tapped homeland security Chief Tom Ridge to lead that new department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, DIR. HOMELAND SECURITY: Time is of the essence. We have to be agile, we have to be nimble, we have to be organized as quickly as we possibly can. And at the end of the day, the first mission and the first priority is security, and if you can't get it done in the manner, shape or form that it needs to be done by persuasion and there's other -- or you call it head-knocking, whatever it is, this is critical to the defense of this country, and I'm convinced we can get it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLAWAY: Plans call for a large portion of that department to take shape by March 1. But is the March 1 date realistic?

CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been covering this story for us all week. She's up very early with us this morning.

Jeanne, thanks for getting up.

I know you spoke with Tom Ridge yesterday, and when you take a look at what this department is supposed to do, it looks almost impossible that he'll be able to accomplish all the things that this agency should do. Are they going to be able to do it?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're on a very accelerated timeline. Yesterday, the president sent up to Capitol Hill his reorganization plan, which wasn't due for 60 days, a reflection, the administration says, of what kind of priority they're putting on this issue. And that lays out the specific things that some of the directorates within this new department are going to have to do, and it is a huge task indeed.

And we're talking here about a department that doesn't have office space. Most of the senior positions have not yet been filled. They have to deal with nuts-and-bolts issues like computers and e- mail, making them all compatible within the department and making it so this department could communicate with the rest of the federal government.

There are a lot of local people who say that worry about this new department already has slowed homeland security. They say, people at the federal level have been distracted, and the people at the local level are afraid that all of the concerns over the practical matters of getting this new department together are going to break things even further. It's going to be even more difficult to get things done in the short term.

Long term will they be able to do it? Most people have their fingers crossed and hope that it will make a difference eventually, but it could be years.

CALLAWAY: It could be years, even though these deadlines have been so. What about the funding for all of this, Jeanne? What, 170,000 employees? And that's just really a beginning -- the beginning of it.

MESERVE: Well, you know, money is going to be the big question down the line.

CALLAWAY: Yes.

MESERVE: Most people felt that there weren't enough people to do the job for the Customs Service, the Border Patrol, the INS. Staffing has always been an issue. Just because those particular agencies are moving into this new department doesn't erase those problems.

Yes, there may be some cost-savings, because they'll be sharing some bureaucratic costs amongst one another, but most outside experts are doubtful that this is going to do enough. They really feel this department is going to have to go back to Congress and ask for some more money, and in a tough budgetary climate.

And meanwhile, you have the mayor saying, hey, wait a minute, we're shelling out millions of dollars for homeland defense.

CALLAWAY: Right.

MESERVE: We've seen nothing back except that much planning money. We want some money, too.

So, this is really going to be the ongoing debate.

CALLAWAY: You know, let's talk frankly about all of this, Jeanne -- a lot of discussion about Tom Ridge taking the helm of this department. Why not someone like Rudy Giuliani? I know we've heard that name tossed out there.

MESERVE: Yes, it was tossed around, but you know, the people I talked to never were that serious about Giuliani. They felt that he was a little bit too much of a lose cannon. President Bush likes people who are team players, and Tom Ridge has proved that he is exactly that.

This is a guy who has been handling the homeland security for the president for more than a year. He knows the issues. He knows the players. He knows the turf battles. He knows members of Congress. In fact, he was once a member of Congress himself.

The one thing he doesn't have is corporate experience, handling a merger, but as someone pointed out to me, there has never been a situation like this. Most corporate mergers, you know, involve two entities. Here, we're looking at someone having to put together 22 different agencies. Nobody has that kind of experience.

CALLAWAY: No, they don't, but he will soon, won't he?

MESERVE: You bet.

CALLAWAY: Jeanne Meserve, I know you'll be covering this new department. Thank you very much, Jeanne.

MESERVE: You bet.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired November 26, 2002 - 06:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The 90-day clock is ticking for the government's 15th cabinet department to get up and running. President Bush signed the homeland security measure yesterday. It folds part of 22 existing agencies into a huge department with more than 170,000 employees.
Mr. Bush tapped homeland security Chief Tom Ridge to lead that new department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, DIR. HOMELAND SECURITY: Time is of the essence. We have to be agile, we have to be nimble, we have to be organized as quickly as we possibly can. And at the end of the day, the first mission and the first priority is security, and if you can't get it done in the manner, shape or form that it needs to be done by persuasion and there's other -- or you call it head-knocking, whatever it is, this is critical to the defense of this country, and I'm convinced we can get it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLAWAY: Plans call for a large portion of that department to take shape by March 1. But is the March 1 date realistic?

CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been covering this story for us all week. She's up very early with us this morning.

Jeanne, thanks for getting up.

I know you spoke with Tom Ridge yesterday, and when you take a look at what this department is supposed to do, it looks almost impossible that he'll be able to accomplish all the things that this agency should do. Are they going to be able to do it?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're on a very accelerated timeline. Yesterday, the president sent up to Capitol Hill his reorganization plan, which wasn't due for 60 days, a reflection, the administration says, of what kind of priority they're putting on this issue. And that lays out the specific things that some of the directorates within this new department are going to have to do, and it is a huge task indeed.

And we're talking here about a department that doesn't have office space. Most of the senior positions have not yet been filled. They have to deal with nuts-and-bolts issues like computers and e- mail, making them all compatible within the department and making it so this department could communicate with the rest of the federal government.

There are a lot of local people who say that worry about this new department already has slowed homeland security. They say, people at the federal level have been distracted, and the people at the local level are afraid that all of the concerns over the practical matters of getting this new department together are going to break things even further. It's going to be even more difficult to get things done in the short term.

Long term will they be able to do it? Most people have their fingers crossed and hope that it will make a difference eventually, but it could be years.

CALLAWAY: It could be years, even though these deadlines have been so. What about the funding for all of this, Jeanne? What, 170,000 employees? And that's just really a beginning -- the beginning of it.

MESERVE: Well, you know, money is going to be the big question down the line.

CALLAWAY: Yes.

MESERVE: Most people felt that there weren't enough people to do the job for the Customs Service, the Border Patrol, the INS. Staffing has always been an issue. Just because those particular agencies are moving into this new department doesn't erase those problems.

Yes, there may be some cost-savings, because they'll be sharing some bureaucratic costs amongst one another, but most outside experts are doubtful that this is going to do enough. They really feel this department is going to have to go back to Congress and ask for some more money, and in a tough budgetary climate.

And meanwhile, you have the mayor saying, hey, wait a minute, we're shelling out millions of dollars for homeland defense.

CALLAWAY: Right.

MESERVE: We've seen nothing back except that much planning money. We want some money, too.

So, this is really going to be the ongoing debate.

CALLAWAY: You know, let's talk frankly about all of this, Jeanne -- a lot of discussion about Tom Ridge taking the helm of this department. Why not someone like Rudy Giuliani? I know we've heard that name tossed out there.

MESERVE: Yes, it was tossed around, but you know, the people I talked to never were that serious about Giuliani. They felt that he was a little bit too much of a lose cannon. President Bush likes people who are team players, and Tom Ridge has proved that he is exactly that.

This is a guy who has been handling the homeland security for the president for more than a year. He knows the issues. He knows the players. He knows the turf battles. He knows members of Congress. In fact, he was once a member of Congress himself.

The one thing he doesn't have is corporate experience, handling a merger, but as someone pointed out to me, there has never been a situation like this. Most corporate mergers, you know, involve two entities. Here, we're looking at someone having to put together 22 different agencies. Nobody has that kind of experience.

CALLAWAY: No, they don't, but he will soon, won't he?

MESERVE: You bet.

CALLAWAY: Jeanne Meserve, I know you'll be covering this new department. Thank you very much, Jeanne.

MESERVE: You bet.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.