The US' Homeland Security Department is undergoing a massive overhaul to centralize its analyses of terror intelligence and work more on bioterrorism.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was resetting top priorities in a bid to spur a sluggish bureaucracy beset by turf wars and growing pains.
Creation of an intelligence director to centralize terrorism analyses and a chief medical officer to focus on bioterrorism were among top changes to be announced by Chertoff yesterday. These are two areas where experts believe the department has lagged.
Chertoff ordered a review in March, shortly after he took office, to ensure Homeland Security puts most of its resources into the nation's most vulnerable areas.
"Our department must drive improvement with a sense of urgency," Chertoff said in remarks prepared for yesterday and provided to The Associated Press. "Our enemy constantly changes and adapts, so we as a department must be nimble and decisive."
Transportation and border security are among Chertoff's top priorities and will get more personnel, detection and screening technology and other resources, according to department officials. They spoke on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the changes had not been announced.
Some lawmakers Chertoff briefed on Tuesday said the overhaul was headed in the right direction, but remained skeptical that bureaucratic reorganization would make the country safer.
"We appreciated him coming and talking to us, but ... at the end of the day you have to show Congress and the public what you have done will in fact make us safer" said Representative Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.
Thompson said that Chertoff highlighted immigration and vulnerabilities at chemical and nuclear plants as top priorities.
Meanwhile, the Senate was engaged in what promised to be a weeklong debate over the department's spending priorities.
Republican Senator Judd Gregg, who oversees domestic security spending, faced a fight with another senior Republican lawmaker over how much to increase funds for protecting mass transit after the London bombings.
As part of a US$31.8 billion bill for Homeland Security next year, Republican Senator Richard Shelby planned to offer a measure allocating US$1.16 billion for commuter rail, subways and bus systems.
Gregg, who chairs the Senate Appropriations homeland security panel, said he would only consider doubling mass transit security spending to about US$200 million.
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