Bush Pushes for Security Bill

WASHINGTON -- Buoyed by Republican gains in the midterm elections, President Bush on Thursday applied new pressure on Congress to approve a Department of Homeland Security when lawmakers return next week for an abbreviated, lame-duck session.

He called the creation of such an agency “the single-most important item of unfinished business on Capitol Hill.”

Despite a mantra at the White House that there would be no gloating over the GOP success on election day, the president exuded confidence and high spirits as he fielded questions from reporters, frequently offering up quips along the way in his first full-length news conference in four months.

Bush twice dodged questions about whether other members of his economic team may soon depart, after the resignation of Harvey L. Pitt, the besieged chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Instead, he tried to keep the focus on his priorities for next year -- the speedier confirmation of his judicial nominations, passage of an energy bill, providing seniors with prescription drug coverage.

Although the full effect of Tuesday’s elections will not be felt until the next Congress convenes in January, Bush’s call for immediate passage of the homeland security bill in the upcoming lame-duck session may provide a quick measure of his newly acquired political clout.

The proposal -- which Bush unveiled in June -- has been stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate over a dispute with Bush over labor issues.

In outlining his agenda, Bush called for bipartisan cooperation and avoided reveling over the election results.

Bush campaigned vigorously for the GOP and, bucking historical trends for midterm elections, the party not only increased its House majority but regained control of the Senate.

Bush, when asked whether he interpreted the results as a mandate for his policies, instead said that his reading was that “people want something to get done.”

He added: “I really don’t put this in personal terms.”

Besides pushing for the Homeland Security department, Bush said forcing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to get rid of his suspected weapons of mass destruction and revitalizing the economy remain his priorities.

Focusing his attention on the lame-duck Congress, Bush also urged the returning lawmakers to quickly enact a law that would provide a federal safety net to the insurance industry for terrorist attacks. Such insurance has been hard to obtain for major building projects since last year’s terrorist attacks, hurting the economy.

Passing terrorism insurance, Bush said, would create “thousands of good hard-hat jobs.”

Bush’s comment made clear that despite the strong GOP showing in Tuesday’s vote, he recognizes that a sagging economy could undo his reelection hopes.

Indeed, while the president was short on details when it came to his goals for the new Congress, he did say that he wanted to work with lawmakers on “new job and growth packages.”

White House aides said details on such programs would be forthcoming with the approach of the president’s annual State of the Union address to Congress in January.

The president pointedly noted that some of his judicial nominees are stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee -- whose chairmanship soon will transfer from Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) to Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).

After Bush spoke, a Hatch spokeswoman indicated that the senator intends to move quickly to send those nominations to the Senate floor for confirmation votes.

The president indicated that he hoped those nominees would include two that the Democratic-controlled committee blocked because of their conservative leanings -- Charles Pickering and Priscilla Owen, both nominated for the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Bush said: “By the way, if they had been let to the floor for a vote, we believe they would have won.”

Questions about Bush’s economic team stemmed from speculation that Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill and Lawrence B. Lindsey, the president’s chief economic advisor, might depart after the midterm elections.

Both have been criticized, including by some Republicans, for not responding aggressively enough to economic problems, sparking speculation that either or both might soon be leaving.

Rather than dismiss the speculation, Bush simply said they had faced daunting challenges.

“There was a recession; there was a terrorist attack; there were corporate scandals. We have done a lot to return confidence,” he said.

Pitt submitted his resignation Tuesday, overcome by a series of controversies that stalked his stewardship of the SEC.

The most recent controversy involved the commission’s appointment of William H. Webster to oversee accounting practices.

The former director of the FBI and CIA had informed Pitt that he had headed the audit committee of a company that is itself under investigation, but Pitt did not report this to other commissioners or to the White House before Webster was named to the job.

When asked whether he planned to ask Webster to resign his oversight post, Bush said he was awaiting the findings of a government inquiry into the matter.

But the president made a point of praising Webster as “a decent, honorable public servant who has served our country well.”

He also said he would nominate a successor to Pitt “as soon as possible” and that he was looking for someone “who is going to continue to fulfill the obligation of holding people to account.”

The homeland security measure that Bush wants passed would shift all or part of 22 federal agencies into one Cabinet superagency with roughly 170,000 employees, responsible for, among many functions, securing airports, seaports and borders

Initially, he opposed a Democratic push for such an agency that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But when it became apparent that Congress was going to pass such a measure, Bush reversed course and made it an administration priority.

His flip-flop has inspired speculation that he still may not fully back such an agency -- speculation that the president directly addressed Thursday.

“Some rumor’s moving around that we may not be too keen on getting that done,” he said. “I want it done. It is a priority.”

The bill has been stalled in the Senate because Democrats say that the House-passed bill, which Bush backs, would ease civil service protections and other rights for employees of such an agency.

It was unclear whether Bush’s new pressure on Congress would immediately achieve results.

Aides to Democratic and Republican senators said Thursday that given the unpredictability of a lame-duck session, the Senate still might put off action on a homeland security bill until the new session convenes.

A GOP Senate aide said that come January, new Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) would be in a better position to bring the president’s bill to the floor and pass it without a Democratic filibuster.

The aide said he didn’t think Democrats would dare filibuster. “That’s the reason that some people lost the elections this year.”

At one point during the news conference, Bush bantered about the wedding this weekend of his press secretary, Ari Fleischer.

“I hope you all have sent your gifts to him,” he told the roomful of reporters, and then added, “Ari, I did what you asked me to do.”

Bush granted a reporter’s request to pose a follow-up question by joking: “If the elections had gone a different way, I might not be so generous.”

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Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this report.