Gibbons sees success for Cabinet post

Benjamin Grove

Friday, June 7, 2002 | 9:36 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who for months has advocated making the nation's homeland security director a Cabinet-level secretary, said the plan announced by President Bush was certain to spark congressional and governmental turf battles.

But Gibbons is optimistic Congress will approve the massive restructuring plan, and soon.

"This issue is too important for the security of America not to pass it by the end of the session," set for October, Gibbons said.

Bush's plan would create a Department of Homeland Security and bring agencies including the Immigration and Naturalization and Customs Services, and the Secret Service, into its fold, similar to a plan Gibbons and other lawmakers initially outlined in October and introduced last month.

Bush asked Congress to make his plan law. To that end, White House officials asked Gibbons and three other House lawmakers to shepherd the legislation on their side of the Capitol.

Gibbons and seven other key House and Senate lawmakers met today at the White House for an "open and frank" discussion with Bush and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge about the plan and a strategy to pass it, Gibbons said. Congress is likely to tinker with the plan, and government departments are likely to balk at the loss of their agencies -- and budgets.

"The favorite parlor game in Washington, D.C., is turf war," Gibbons said today after the meeting. "And this is going to be the biggest architectural realignment in government since 1947."

Gibbons said he was optimistic that even fellow conservatives who dislike big government would embrace Bush's plan for a new homeland security department. Gibbons said the plan creates better -- not more -- government.

"We're all aboard in the war against terrorism," Gibbons said. "We are not necessarily increasing the bureaucracy here. What we are doing is adding efficiency to the process."

White House legislative affairs director Nicholas Calio called Gibbons Thursday morning to ask him to help lead the effort in Congress, Gibbons said.

Gibbons was already a key player in the national effort to reform its intelligence network. He sits on the 37-member joint House and Senate panel that began meeting this week to investigate intelligence community weaknesses.