TERRORIST THREATS DICTATE CREATION OF HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT

By Rob Portman

Our federal government must create a unified structure capable of quickly responding to terrorist threats. The creation of this new Department of Homeland Security will be a massive undertaking but, if it is done right, it will make us safer.

To respond to these new threats, our government must be able to act with greater agility -- we must make government more effective in stopping terrorism before it strikes. I have become convinced that this task can be made easier if the responsibility for our homeland security exists within a single, unified structure. This is what President Bush had in mind when he recently presented Congress with a visionary plan to create a new Department of Homeland Security.

With over 100 federal agencies currently sharing responsibility for homeland security, everyone is in charge and no one is in charge. The need for more accountability is clear. However, combining these different agencies and their roles in a way that matches the agility of our enemies will not be an easy task. It will require extraordinary cooperation among all those departments and agencies. It will require cooperation among the various committees in Congress that oversee these federal agencies. Basically, it will require Washington putting protection of the homeland ahead of protecting turf.

The creation of this new Department must be done carefully, but we also can't drag our feet. The threat of terrorism continues to be very real, and the sooner we can improve our homeland security, the better. To help ensure Congress acts quickly, Speaker Dennis Hastert has created a new Congressional Select Committee on Homeland Security. This bipartisan committee consists of nine members of the Congressional leadership -- four Democrats and five Republicans, including myself. It is charged with moving legislation through the Congress that would create a new Department of Homeland Security.

I recognize the importance of the work before us. During the Cold War, our biggest threat was the Soviet Union and the possibility of nuclear war. But today, the bigger threat is terrorism. By marshaling our homeland security resources into one agency, and forcing all these agencies to work together, we can ensure the government is doing all it can to protect our nation and avoid future attacks that would kill many more innocent Americans. A Department of Homeland Security won't make us immune from terrorism, but it will make us safer.