    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
    [July 22, 2002]
    [Pages 1277-1281]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne
    July 22, 2002

        The President. Thank you all. Please have a seat--[laughter]--unless
    you don't have a chair. [Laughter] Thank you all very much for welcoming
    me here. I'm honored to be here. I'm honored to be here with some of the
    finest Americans in our country.
        We're in a new kind of war today. We face a ruthless and a
    resourceful enemy. We do. That's the reality of the 21st century. These
    people seek to acquire the most destructive of weapons because they hate
    freedom. They intend to spread fear and death around the world. To
    prevail in this war, we're going to take the battle to the enemy in
    foreign lands. To prevail in this war, we'll use our law enforcement and
    our intelligence gathering all across our country to prevent the
    American people from being harmed. And to prevail in this war, we will
    fight on the frontiers of knowledge and discovery.
        In this new war, we will rely upon the genius and creativity of the
    American people. And that's why I'm here, to look in the eyes of those
    who posses the genius and the creativity of the American people. Our
    scientific community is serving on the frontlines of this war by
    developing new technologies that will make America safer. And as you
    tackle new scientific challenges, I want you to know, our Government
    will stand by your side to make your job easier. It is in our interests
    that we work together.
        I want to thank Spence Abraham for his
    leadership at the Department of Energy, and I want to thank all of you
    for working for the fine Department of Energy. I want to thank Tom
    Ridge for coming. He's a man--I asked him, I said,
    ``You know, you

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    need to serve your country.'' He was serving as the Governor of
    Pennsylvania. I said, ``You've got a nice mansion over there.''
    [Laughter] ``It's heavy lifting, but we need you in Washington.'' And
    for the good of the country, he came to help us spearhead the effort for
    a Department of Homeland Security.
        And I want to thank Dr. John Marburger, who is the Director of Office Science and Technology
    Policy. Dr. Marburger is a fine scientist who represents the best of
    American scientists in Washington, DC.
        I appreciate the Speaker of the House
    being here. He's my friend. He's doing a fine job on behalf of the
    citizens of Illinois and the United States of America, Speaker Denny
    Hastert. And I want to thank Senator Durbin and Senator Fitzgerald for
    coming as well. I know they've got busy schedules. Thank you all for
    being here. I appreciate you coming. I appreciate Judy Biggert, Jerry Weller, and Mark
    Kirk, fine Members of the House of
    Representatives from Illinois, being here today. I look forward to
    giving them a lift back to Washington. [Laughter] It's a nice way to
    travel. I think you all will like it. [Laughter]
        I want to thank the Governor, George Ryan, for coming. Governor, I appreciate your time. I want to
    thank the attorney general of Illinois, Jim Ryan,
    for coming as well. I want to thank Ray Orbach,
    who is the Director of Office and--Science at the Department of Energy,
    who led us on our tour. And of course I've got to thank Dr.
    Grunder. If everybody had a spirit like
    Dr. Grunder, the world would be an incredibly happy place. We're proud
    of you, Hermann. Thank you for your service to the country, and thank
    you all very much.
        The Argonne National Laboratory is a cutting-edge facility. You're
    on the cutting edge, and you've got a great history as well. It is a
    direct decedent of the University of Chicago laboratory, where in 1942
    Enrico Fermi and his colleagues achieved the world's first controlled
    nuclear chain reaction. This is a place where smart people work.
    [Laughter] It is the home of some of America's greatest scientists, who
    continue to dazzle the world with astonishing breakthroughs.
        I've just come back from viewing some demonstrations of the great
    work done at national laboratories, whether it be here or Los Alamos or
    Sandia or others. The American people need to know we've got a lot of
    brainpower working on ways to deal with the threats that we now face as
    we head into the 21st century.
        For example, I saw a warning and response system that will supply
    first-responders with timely and life-saving information in the event of
    a chemical attack on a subway or any other enclosed space. I saw a
    project that uses new advances in genetic research to identify and
    understand biological agents that could be used against us. I saw
    computer simulations to help policymakers and first-responders
    anticipate the effect of an attack of natural disaster and to develop
    life-saving plans. What I saw was new technologies that our scientists
    are developing to help us secure the homeland. America is grateful. It's
    grateful for your work. And our Government must be organized and focused
    to support these efforts.
        Right now there are more than 100 different Federal agencies that
    have some role in the homeland defense of our country. And despite
    everyone's best intentions in those agencies, this inevitably leads to a
    dispersal of authority. Imagine, 100 of them scattered all over
    Washington, DC. It makes it hard to have accountability when you've got
    100 agencies scattered around, and it's a drain on critical resources.
        So I asked Congress to join me in creating a single, permanent,
    Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security with an overriding and
    urgent mission, with this primary focus: to secure the American
    homeland. There are agencies--once they're under this--in this new
    Department will have other missions, no question about it.

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    But their primary mission is to recognize the new world in which we
    live. The world has changed, and so must our Government change with it,
    in order to allow all of us who have responsibility to say to the
    American people, ``We're doing everything we possibly can to protect
    innocent American lives.'' This Department of Homeland Security will
    foster a new culture throughout our Government, one that emphasizes
    cooperation and working together on behalf of the American people. And
    this Department will have four primary tasks.
        First, it will work to control our borders. There needs to be much
    better cooperation amongst the agencies to make sure we know who is
    coming in the country, what they're bringing in the country, why they're
    coming in the country, and are they leaving when they said they're going
    to leave the country.
        We need to work--one of the primary responsibilities will be to work
    with State and local authorities to respond quickly and effectively to
    emergencies. In other words, we need to be better coordinated with the
    brave first-time responders--that means police and fire and EMS teams
    which exist all across our country. We want to have them have the
    strategy necessary to respond, the tools to respond effectively, and to
    be coordinated not only at the Federal level, the State level, and the
    local level.
        Thirdly, we need to merge under one roof the capability to identify
    and assess threats to the homeland, map those threats against our
    vulnerabilities, and address the vulnerabilities. So prior to September
    the 11th, we had the CIA collecting information, and we had the FBI
    collecting information, and sometimes they weren't talking all that
    much. Now they talk. Now they coordinate.
        When I'm there in Washington, I meet every morning, face to face,
    with the Director of the CIA and with the
    head of the FBI. It's a way to make
    sure that, at least at the very top levels of Government, people are
    communicating, and we're sharing information. We need to do that
    throughout all our Government and the Department of Homeland Security.
    We need to be able to take the information--intelligence gathered from
    around the world, as well as at home, and understand what might or might
    not be happening. One of the key tools that we need to use effectively
    against the coldblooded killers who we're trying to chase down is the
    capacity of our Nation to collect and analyze information.
        And finally, we need our scientists to develop the kinds of
    technologies I saw today. We need to have an effective strategy of
    mating up our brainpower with the problems we face, so as to stay on the
    cutting edge of technological change necessary to protect the homeland.
        And this last point is an incredibly important point, and that's why
    I've come to this laboratory to make the point. [Laughter] It's a
    perfect place to make the point. We will harness our science and our
    technology in a way to protect the American people. We will consolidate
    most federally funded homeland security research and development to
    avoid duplication and to make sure all the efforts are focused.
        You see, we need to learn to set priorities in our Government. And
    the number one priority is to protect America from attack, because we're
    at war. The Department of Homeland Security will work to create a long-
    term plan. And once you have the long-term plan with the goal of
    securing the homeland, then we can set funding priorities. We give our
    scientists the resources they require, and that's important for you to
    know--resources necessary to counter the chemical and the biological and
    the radiological and nuclear threats that our Nation faces. And these
    threats are real. And therefore, we need to stay focused, not only to
    make sure resources are spent but that critical research continues,
    because you all know better than anybody, when we research and we set
    priorities, this great Nation can achieve any objective.

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        We're making progress. We are making progress in Washington. I
    appreciate so very much the House select committee getting a bill out,
    and it's going to get to the floor. And the Speaker was telling me today that it looks like they may get a
    vote this week, and the Senate is working hard on it. Both Republicans
    and Democrats are working hard to reconcile any differences that may be
    had. It's important for people to understand, particularly in
    Washington, this Department of Homeland Security is not a good
    Republican idea; it's not a good Democrat idea; it's simply an American
    idea. And they need to get their work done.
        And as they do so, the new Secretary of Homeland Security must have
    the freedom and the flexibility to be able to get the right people in
    the right job at the right time, so we can hold people accountable in
    Washington. We need the freedom to manage. We don't need to be
    micromanaged. And that's sometimes what happens in Washington, DC. The
    new Secretary needs the ability to move money and resources quickly, to
    respond to true threats.
        I understand why that may not happen sometimes in Washington, and
    it's because, for example, appropriators may not want the executive
    branch to have the capacity to make decisions necessary to make the
    Homeland Department work effectively. But we're in new times in America,
    and that requires new thinking. And Congress must give us the
    flexibility necessary to make the right decisions to achieve our goal,
    which is to protect the American people.
        As well, this new Department must have every tool it needs to secure
    the homeland. This new agency should include all of the departments
    which protect our border--all of the departments, not just some, but all
    of the departments. That includes the Coast Guard, the Customs Service,
    the INS--INS inspectors, Border Patrol, and customs agents must report
    to the same boss and work together for the same goals. And this new
    Department needs to be able to respond effectively to any attack that
    might come, so it must house FEMA in its entirety.
        What I'm telling you is, I understand that these changes won't be
    easy for some in Congress, but for the sake of the security of the
    American people, Congress needs to give up some of its turf and
    recognize turf is not nearly as important as security for the people--
    security for the American people. We're in new times, folks. We're in a
    different world. We face an unprecedented threat, and we cannot respond
    with business as usual.
        But I want you to know something, how I feel, and what I know. I
    know that the best way to secure the homeland is to hunt these
    coldblooded killers down one by one and bring them to justice, and
    that's what we're going to do. And it's going to take awhile. It's going
    to take awhile. Unlike past wars, where you could see platoons and
    battalions moving here, or airplane formations moving there, we're
    chasing down these people who are willing to hide in a cave and send
    youngsters to their death. That's the kind of people we're facing.
        You know, these people hate--they hate America because we love
    freedom. They hate the fact that--as I look out, I mean, I can see
    people who worship an Almighty and some who don't, who worship an
    Almighty one way and others another way. They hate that. They can't
    stand a society which honors freedom, freedom to worship, freedom to
    speak, freedom to express our opinions. That's what they hate, and
    they're going to hate us for a long time because those are the values
    we'll never relinquish in America.
        We believe in tolerance in America. That's what we believe in. We
    respect the other person. We always don't agree, but we respect, and we
    tolerate. And we believe everybody ought to have access to the great
    American experience, regardless of how they're raised or where they're
    from. That's what we believe.

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        And anytime anybody who tries to get us because of those beliefs--
    they're going to find something out about America. I don't know what was
    going through the minds of the enemy when they were plotting and
    planning. I don't know who they thought they were attacking. They must
    have thought this country was so materialistic, so self-absorbed that we
    would sit back and, you know, after the attacks, maybe file a lawsuit or
    two. [Laughter] That's not the America I know. And that's not the
    America you're a part of.
        Listen, when people come after us, we're plenty tough. We're a
    compassionate nation. And so we're on the hunt. You just need to know
    we're after them, one by one--one by one. And so long as I'm the
    President of this country, we're going to chase them down, one by one,
    to make sure the American homeland is secure.
        And we're making progress. As I said in a speech in front of about
    10,000 of our troops and their families in Fort Drum, New York, last
    Friday: We've hauled in thousands--that means captured--[laughter]--and
    another couple of thousand weren't quite as lucky. We're making
    progress. Sometimes it's not quite as dramatic as, you know, the
    newscasters would like, because--they learned their lesson, by the way.
    They understand if they bunch up, if they get together, our military is
    going to find them. And it's not going to be a pleasant day when our
    military does find them, because we're good. I'm really proud of the
    United States military and those who serve.
        And I'm proud of you all too. That's really what I'm here to tell
    you. I'm proud of you. We're depending on you to develop the tools we
    need to lift the dark threat of terrorism for our Nation and, for that
    matter, the world. All of us here today, whether we're scientists or
    engineers or elected officials, share in a great calling. It's an honor
    to participate in a noble cause that's larger than ourselves.
        Audience member. God bless America.
        The President. It's an honor to defend this Nation. It's a high
    honor to be called into action and to defend our Nation when it's
    threatened, and that's what you're doing. It's an honor to help protect
    the American people against the forces of evil.
        History has called each of us to defend America. That's what's
    happened. History has called us into action in a time of great peril.
    The struggles against nazism and communism helped to define the 20th
    century. The war on terror will be the defining conflict of the 21st
    century. It's our solemn duty, it's our responsibility, and it's our
    great privilege to help America prevail in this war. And prevail we
    will.
        May God bless you all. May God bless your work, and may God bless
    America. Thank you very much. Thank you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:33 a.m. in a courtyard behind the
    Advanced Photon Source Building. In his remarks, he referred to Hermann
    A. Grunder, director, Argonne National Laboratory.