Livermore Lab Is Taken Out of Plan to Change Cabinet

In an early sign that it will be flexible with its proposed Department of Homeland Security, the Bush administration dropped the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California as part of the new Cabinet-level department Wednesday.

The move underscored the administration’s willingness to respond to congressional concerns about the fine print of its proposal in order to win speedy approval for the government reorganization. It also suggested that the plan was likely to undergo much more tinkering before it becomes final.

“It’s a work in progress,” Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said after a closed-door briefing with lawmakers.

Of the Livermore lab, Ridge said, “We’re not going to take it over.” His aides said the administration is refining its proposal to clarify the lab’s role in homeland defense, which most likely will include counter-terrorism research.

Livermore’s inclusion in the proposed department, which would bring together the Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency and other governmental units, mystified even supporters of President Bush’s proposal. Critics cited it as evidence of the haste and secrecy in which the administration drafted the plan.

The lab, east of San Francisco, is responsible for designing and safeguarding the nation’s nuclear weapon stockpile. But only a small part of its work is related to homeland security, and most of its 7,500 employees work for the University of California, which manages it for the Energy Department.

Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Alamo), whose district includes the lab, said she thought its inclusion was a “drafting error.”

Tauscher said Ridge told her Wednesday that the administration had no intention of moving the lab’s operations or scientists into the new agency. Rather, she said, scientists would continue to work at the lab while funding for the lab’s counter-terrorism efforts--such as air monitors used at the U.S. Olympics in Salt Lake City --would come from the new department.

But Gordon Johndroe, the spokesman for the Office of Homeland Security, said, “It was never intended that the department would assume all of the functions that currently take place at Lawrence Livermore. The administration is refining the plan to more accurately reflect the research needs of the new department.”

Ridge’s office and the Energy Department are working out the details of the proposal regarding Livermore.

At the lab, spokeswoman Linda Seaver said, “We just don’t know how this will affect us yet.”

At the White House, Bush convened his Homeland Security Advisory Council, charged with advising the administration on the reorganization and the overall counter-terrorism effort.

The members include chairman Joseph J. Grano Jr., chief executive of UBS PaineWebber and a veteran of U.S. Special Forces; and former FBI Director William H. Webster, who will serve as vice chairman.

After signing a bill Wednesday designed to bolster the country’s ability to deal with bioterrorism attacks, Bush intensified his efforts to win congressional approval for the new department. He met with leaders of congressional committees that would lose jurisdiction as a result of the reorganization.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who attended the White House meeting, said he told the president that he wanted to work with him. “It’s just very hard to assess the substance or even the prospects for legislation because the administration hasn’t submitted a bill,” Waxman said.

“We hear different changes being talked about daily,” he said. “Some people are saying we should do it quickly. Others are saying be sure to do it right. But we can’t do anything until the White House submits legislation.”

Ridge, meanwhile, encountered tough questioning from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “It isn’t enough to send a salesman down here,” said Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said after attending the meeting with Ridge. “You can have all the reorganization in the world, but if you don’t back it up with additional resources, you’re going to have empty boxes on the chart.”

Even if parts of Bush’s plan are changed or dropped, analysts predict Congress will create a Department of Homeland Security.

“We’re going to get a department,” said James A. Thurber, an American University government professor. “There’s momentum behind this thing. It’s a matter of what’s in, what’s out.”

In the case of the Livermore lab, Thurber suggested the 54-member California congressional delegation would have “a great deal of influence” in deciding its fate.

To some extent, Bush invited Congress to alter his plan. The administration released a summary report on the department when he spoke to the nation a week ago, but it offered relatively few supporting details and said legislative language would be delayed.