Adding cabinets

July 26, 2002
Congress this year may pass legislation creating two new cabinets, both of which the White House endorses in principle.

Congress this year may pass legislation creating two new cabinets, both of which the White House endorses in principle.
Serious negotiations are under way for a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security; a Department of Environmental Protection is also being considered.

Homeland security
Of the two proposals, the homeland security issue is on a faster schedule, reflecting politicians' fears that national security, and public confidence, could suffer if partisan bickering lingers into fall.
Before the August recess, Congress is expected to pass a bill elevating the 9-month-old Office of Homeland Security from a White House advisory board to a cabinet position. White House officials until recently said the office could wield the same power as an independent agency. But given that the office had no clear budget or regulatory authority of its own, Congress increasingly regarded that view as a false assumption. Lawmakers, for example, argued that intelligence agencies often gave conflicting advice to industry on how to manage risk associated with threats to critical infrastructures.
Creating a cabinet-level position is supposed to eliminate that problem by establishing a bureaucratic pecking order that, it is hoped, will reduce jurisdictional turf battles.
Trade association executives representing the oil, gas, and electric industries have endorsed the idea of one government agency overseeing security issues surrounding all energy infrastructures, whether it be a gas pipeline, nuclear reactor, or high-voltage transmission line.
"Because nuclear plants, pipelines, port facilities, transmission hubs, hydroelectric structures, and many other vital US energy components could be terrorist targets, one government agency should be tasked with the oversight and coordination responsibility for all energy infrastructure systems," according to a national energy security study published by the industry group US Energy Association July 19.
The government agency in charge should also decide whether government or the private sector is primarily responsible for the defense of specific facilities and energy systems, USEA said.
The Department of Energy, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Transportation all currently have a hand in infrastructure security issues.

EPA secretary?
While momentum is clearly building for a new Department of Homeland Security, the same cannot be said for languishing proposals to elevate the Environmental Protection Agency to the president's cabinet.
The House Government Reform Subcommittee July 16 held its third hearing on the subject, but the political will to move forward may be waning, thanks to a crowded legislative schedule.
Some proposals would do little more than promote the administrator to the level of cabinet secretary; other bills seek wholesale changes to the structure and organization of the agency. One bill, by Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.), would create a deputy administrator for science. Another proposal, by Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.), would create a science advisory board and an office of environmental justice.
Another complication is an unwillingness by some Democratic lawmakers to give the White House what they see as a easy political victory on the environment, an important fall campaign issue.