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American Morning

President Proposes Creation of New Cabinet-Level Department to Fight Terrorist Threats at Home

Aired June 07, 2002 - 07:03   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Also up front this morning, the president proposes the creation of a new cabinet-level department to fight terrorist threats at home. That sweeping announcement came last night on the same day a Senate committee began public hearings into the FBI's intelligence failures.

Jeanne Meserve joins us now in Washington with more.

Good morning, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. It is indeed a sweeping proposal setting up the second largest department in the government to fight what the president called the war of freedom against fear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tonight, I propose a permanent cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security to unite essential agencies that must work more closely together. Among them, the Coast Guard, the Border Patrol, the Customs Service, Immigration officials, the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Employees of this new agency will come to work every morning, knowing their most important job is to protect their fellow citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: This new department will combine 22 different federal agencies into one department with 170,000 employees and a budget of $37.5 billion. It will have a very diverse portfolio, dealing not just with border issues that the president mentioned, but also things like training first responders and also intelligence. Some people consider that the core of this proposal. It will not have the ability to gather its own intelligence, but it will take intelligence gathered (ph) (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the CIA and the FBI, but other agencies as well, like Customs and the DEA. It will analyze and fuse all of that information in the hopes of detecting and deterring any future terrorist attacks. Paula, it has to get congressional approval; thus far, a pretty good reaction to it from Capitol Hill.

ZAHN: Although a number of senators and representatives have expressed some reservation about some of the problems that you (ph) are going to encounter down the road in the oversight process (ph).

MESERVE: They have mentioned some problems (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Homeland Security experts here, some of the things they point out. One, they point out this is a very diverse portfolio. Is it too diverse? Simply by putting all of these different functions under one umbrella, will you indeed improve the function of how things work?

Secondly, they point out that some of these agencies are being told (UNINTELLIGIBLE) department have diverse (ph) missions. The Customs Department, for instance, does have a security function, but also has resulted in arresting terrorists (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Now, what happens to that aspect of this mission, if indeed a part of a Homeland Security Department.

The third thing they point out is the important thing is to assess our vulnerability and shore them up.

ZAHN: We are going to take a break, if you wouldn't mind standing by. We are going to go to a news conference that is being held by one of the members of the Burnham family after learning that one of their own was killed in the Philippines.

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