Posted on: Wednesday, October 10, 2001

Editorial
Homeland Security will need oversight

You've heard, of course, of the FBI and the CIA. Perhaps you're even familiar with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other agencies concerned with our national welfare.

But how about the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office or the national Institute of Information Infrastructure Protection?

Less well known, surely, but all part of what must now become a coordinated national effort designed to step up in this time of great threat to our domestic security.

The task of creating that coordinated effort has been handed to former Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas Ridge, a former prosecutor who has a close relationship with President Bush.

The job facing Ridge is formidable. It is a job he cannot, nor should not, be asked to tackle alone.

Congress must support him through its budget-making powers and — at the same time — exert a level of Congressional oversight over this vital new task.

As important as the new Office of Homeland Security is, it cannot be allowed to go forward without some level of review by the elected representatives of the American people.

Ridge has been asked to oversee a security system that has more than 40 agencies involved, ranging from the well-known to the obscure. While these organizations and agencies have similar missions, they often operate at cross-purposes, competing for budget support and authority.

Ridge has an opportunity to cut through such bureaucratic logjams, but he will need the support of Congress. Somehow, the budgets of these agencies (at least those portions directly related to the work Ridge must accomplish) should be bundled by Congress and routed through the new Office of Homeland Security.

This will give Ridge the clout he needs and will gain the attention of the various competing agencies.

It will also ensure a very important point: congressional oversight of the effort. Never has the need for high-level checks and balances been more important.