(GovExec.com / NY Times) Trade Minister After two and a half years in one of the most challenging leadership positions in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Tuesday afternoon announced his intention to step down by
Feb. 1 or sooner, if the Senate confirms his yet-to-be-nominated successor before then.
Ridge, as the first secretary of Homeland Security, presided over the most extensive governmental reorganizations in five
decades. The establishment of Homeland Security in the spring of 2003 brought together elements of 22 different agencies into a single Cabinet-level department. Both the White House and Ridge, who joined the Bush
administration as the president's adviser on homeland security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, initially opposed the creation of the new department. But once its creation by Congress became inevitable, the
former governor of Pennsylvania embraced Homeland Security's leadership position like the good soldier he once was.
"Ridge's legacy is going to be largely very positive," said Jack Riley, associate
director of the infrastructure, safety and environment division at RAND Corp. The job of bringing together agencies as disparate as the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Border Patrol, the
Coast Guard and the Secret Service, among others, has proved enormously complicated, yet "the components are working together and they have a clear and focused mission," Riley said, citing that fact as one of
Ridge's "great unheralded successes."
That's not to say the department doesn't continue to face enormous challenges. One key problem is that much of authority and responsibility for what generally is
referred to as "homeland security" is outside the department's control. More than 90 per cent of the country's critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, for example.
The
department's ability to substantially improve security over time will depend on how well it can coordinate activity with the private sector, as well as support state and local law enforcement and emergency responders.
While the department has administered millions of dollars in grants to state, local and private authorities, thus far the formula for distributing funds to those entities - a formula crafted by Congress - has been
driven more by political risk than by the actual risk of terrorist threat.
Ridge's successor will face serious management challenges as well. The enforcement arm of the Border and Transportation Security bureau
is experiencing serious budget shortfalls. This is perhaps most notable in the agency's failed detention program.
Americans might be surprised to know that when the Border Patrol picks up illegal immigrants in
some parts of the country, unless those immigrants are known to be dangerous or involved in criminal activity, they are likely to be released because there is simply not enough room for them in the agency's current
detention system - nor is there funding to pay for their incarceration at other facilities. While those individuals are given a summons to appear before an immigration judge, it is widely understood that the vast
majority of them will simply disappear into American communities.
At a press conference Tuesday, Ridge said, "There is enormous international dimension to securing the homeland," and he expressed some
regret that the department had not acted sooner to reach out to U.S. trade partners. "Part of me wishes we'd have started a little bit earlier, but there were other things that it seemed at the time were higher
priorities."
"Just pulling together the department is a legacy," says Gerald Epstein, senior
fellow for science and security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington. It may be years before it becomes clear how well or how poorly the department is really functioning, but he credits Ridge with setting the department on solid footing and moving its component agencies toward
a common goal.
Administration and Congressional officials said Friday that President Bush's selection of Bernard B. Kerik as the new secretary of homeland security signaled potentially sweeping changes at a
sprawling department still struggling to find its place as the country's first line of defense against terrorism.
Mr. Kerik has proved himself a Republican loyalist and he earned the secretary's job in part
through the staunch support of his old boss, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now his partner in a consulting firm. The White House gave Mr. Kerik a speaking role at last summer's Republican convention, and he angered
Democrats by saying in one interview before the election that he feared another terrorist attack and that "if you put Senator Kerry in the White House, I think you are going to see that happen."
In
announcing the nomination, Mr. Bush presented Mr. Kerik as almost the embodiment of the country's response to the Sept. 11 attacks. "Bernie Kerik arrived at the World Trade Center minutes after the first plane
hit," Mr. Bush said. "He was there when the twin towers collapsed. He knew the faces of the rescuers who rushed toward danger. He attended the funeral of the officers who didn't come back. Bernie Kerik
understands the duties that came to America on September the 11th."
Mr. Kerik is expected to win relatively easy confirmation in the Senate, where Republicans hold a majority, although he may face questions
from Democrats about possible conflicts involving the Giuliani firm's security contracts, Congressional officials said.
Representative Christopher Cox, a California Republican who leads the House Homeland
Security Committee and spoke with Mr. Kerik on Friday, said one of his biggest challenges will be to strengthen the department's ability to gather intelligence on terrorists and deliver quick analysis to federal and
local officials.
The department was designed as "the fusion center" for intelligence operations, Mr. Cox said in an interview, but its intelligence operation has been undercut at times by tensions with
other intelligence-gathering agencies.
"He's a fighter," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who spoke with Mr. Kerik on Thursday night.
"The last thing you need in that job
is a bureaucrat," Mr. Schumer said. "You need someone who's going to go into the bureaucracy and shake it up and go to the administration and make sure homeland security gets the resources it needs. Tom Ridge
is a very fine gentleman, and may have been the more obvious type of choice, but Bernie Kerik may have a better chance of succeeding at what is admittedly a very difficult job."
Other officials said they
were encouraged that Mr. Bush had chosen a longtime police officer to lead a department where investigative functions have sometimes received short shrift.
"Ridge is a nice guy, but there are so many layers
of management here that investigations weren't really a high priority for him," said an official at the department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which investigates border crimes, international money
laundering and a range of other security issues. "Kerik is a cop's cop, and we need that here."
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