Clout for U.S. Security Chief

President Bush has moved quickly to establish the Office of Homeland Security and Monday had its first director, former Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas J. Ridge, sworn in. A Vietnam veteran and a hard-nosed prosecutor, Ridge is an astute choice for the job of wresting cooperation from the FBI, CIA and dozens of other turf-conscious agencies. He will be able to call on his close relationship with Bush when he needs muscle. But the president made it hard for his friend by creating the office through executive order. Though this bypassed the need to consult Congress, it leaves Ridge without enough power of his own.

Ridge needs all the clout he can get because the current system of protecting American security is a mess. More than 40 overlapping and often mutually hostile agencies are supposed to guard against terrorism, among them the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, the Institute of Information Infrastructure Protection and the National Infrastructure Protection Center. The General Accounting Office has already noted that it makes little sense to have terrorism response teams in the National Guard, the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In addition to effecting consolidation at the federal level, Ridge will have to assess regional preparedness for chemical and biological attacks. How much federal money should be used to set up how many hospitals to respond? How many firemen need to be specially equipped and trained? What help should be provided to cities?

Understandably, the administration wants to quickly put the Homeland Security Office into full operation. But Ridge cannot go to Bush every time he has to resolve a bureaucratic conflict, and a federal office can’t run for long on a personal relationship. What would work is budgetary authority granted and supervised by Congress. The threat of lost funding is the only thing that can intimidate warring bureaucracies.

A number of political leaders, including Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), are insisting that Congress have a say. A number of bills are circulating that would grant the office some authority over the budgets of other federal agencies and possibly put some smaller agencies under its direct control. They would also allow for congressional oversight.

Ridge should not be reduced to impartial observer in dealing with powerful agencies such as the Pentagon, the FBI and the CIA. He needs his own authority, and his agency should have outside oversight. Congress can provide both.