Gannett News Service

Bush expected to make defending nation top priority

MIKE MADDEN, GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON -- Smallpox. "Dirty bombs." Unguarded water supplies. Porous borders.

Even after four months of constant focus on preventing new attacks, the list of what the United States needs to worry about is still dauntingly long. Though President Bush will set out in tonight's State of the Union address to make homeland security the federal government's top domestic priority, fixing holes in the system and patching vulnerabilities will take years.

In the short term, the administration will seek almost $38 billion in new homeland security spending this year, doubling last year's budget to pay for everything from hiring new FBI agents to buying equipment to defending the mail against bioterrorism threats.

Money will be sent directly to cities and counties so police departments and public health agencies can buy the equipment they need to deal with threats they hadn't even imagined six months ago. Security at borders and ports will be beefed up, and labs researching anthrax and smallpox will get more money.

"Our great challenge is to protect the American people," Bush said. "Our great opportunity is to advance the cause of justice and human dignity and freedom all across the world."

Since hijackers razed the World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon on Sept. 11, government officials have been scrambling to reorient the federal bureaucracy to protect the United States. It is not an easy task. Responsibility for security is scattered across dozens of agencies and a handful of congressional committees.

Led by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, the Office of Homeland Security is working on a plan to coordinate federal, state and local anti-terrorism efforts. A report is due out later this year. But Ridge has no authority over other agencies' budgets and no act of Congress granting him power, and some Democrats and local officials say he doesn't have enough clout to get much done.

"Money is power," Javier Gonzalez, National Association of Counties president, said Monday, calling on Bush to give Ridge more control on how the government spends anti-terrorism money.

But Bush and Ridge both have said their close relationship should provide all the authority Ridge needs in dealing with other government officials.

Changes

While experts and analysts have proposed broad restructuring plans to boost security, few sweeping changes are in the works immediately. Ridge's staff is contemplating a proposal to move the Coast Guard, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and Customs Service into one new border security agency, but the plan has met resistance around the government and still is being studied.

Border security agencies would get almost $11 billion next year in Bush's proposal, an increase of more than 20 percent from last year. Most of the money would go to hiring new agents to man border crossings and setting up high-tech systems to keep track of noncitizens who enter the country.

More money also will go to the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon and other intelligence agencies, which will be encouraged to share more information with local and state officials. The Homeland Security Office is designing a new national threat alert system intended to help local officials respond to warnings as they come in without overreacting or searching blindly for vulnerable areas that might need protection.

Still, Bush seeks to assure that the government is working on the terrorism problem, experts warn that no amount of planning or spending can eliminate an attack.

"One of the problems for Americans is going to be to learn to live with the risks," said Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "There have been far too many sorts of assumptions that somehow this will be over in a few years and the world will be a stable place. Well, it isn't going to happen."

Tonight

President Bush's State of the Union speech at the Capitol will start at 6 p.m. The speech will be televised on all the cable news channels and the major networks. Also, you can find a link to the text of Bush's speech later today on The Olympian's home page.

STATE OF THE UNION
6 P.M. TODAY
Click here for related stories.