Governor says Ridge open to homeland base here
| • | Lingle lobbying for Hawaiian recognition bill |
By Janis L. Magin
Associated Press
Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is "very open" to establishing some of his operations in Hawai'i, including creation of a homeland security headquarters in Honolulu for the U.S. Pacific territories.
Lingle, who is in Washington, D.C., this week attending the National Governors Association meeting, spent the morning with most of the nation's other governors at the White House meeting Bush and other top administration officials.
Lingle said she had the chance to speak with the president twice. She said she asked him for an update on North Korea during yesterday's meeting, and spent 15 minutes talking to the president about Iraq at a dinner Sunday night.
During the meeting with Ridge, Lingle said, they discussed the uniqueness of Hawai'i and homeland security, she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
They also discussed "locating some of the assets in Hawai'i," she said, perhaps personnel and research. "He was very open," she said.
Ridge toured O'ahu when he was in Honolulu for a Republican Party fund-raiser in June 2000, said Lingle, who added that the former Pennsylvania governor was very familiar with the island and aware of the importance of Hawai'i's ports and harbors.
"He basically was very alert to the differences of Hawai'i to all the other states," she said.
The governor said she also discussed the relationship between Hawai'i and the U.S. territories in the Pacific, Guam and American Samoa.
"They really look to Hawai'i," she said. "They can feel very isolated."
Lingle said she asked about the possibility of setting up some sort of a homeland security headquarters for the territories in Honolulu in a letter she left with Ridge.
Lingle also appeared on the CNN program "Inside Politics" yesterday, in an interview in which she talked about the Bush administration's proposal to give states more control over Medicaid programs.
Governors had also asked for flexibility in spending the additional $3.5 billion for homeland security Bush has requested for next year's budget and for more education money to pay for programs and improvements required by the No Child Left Behind Act.
Lingle said all the governors are learning things this year as they grapple with large deficits in their state budgets.
"As a new governor coming in, I think you realize quickly that it's a combination of doing things in a more efficient manner, making sure you are maximizing the money you are getting from Washington," she said. "But it's also having the flexibility that programs address the needs in your state rather than a one-size-fits-all Washington solution."
