    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
    [September 7, 2002]
    [Pages 1557-1559]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    September 7, 2002

        Good morning. Next week, our Nation will pause to honor and remember
    the lives lost on September the 11th. We must also remember a central
    lesson of the tragedy: Our homeland is vulnerable to attack, and we must
    do everything in our power to protect it.

    [[Page 1558]]

        We protect our country by relentlessly pursuing terrorists across
    the Earth, assessing and anticipating our vulnerabilities, and acting
    quickly to address those vulnerabilities and prevent attacks. America
    needs a single department of Government dedicated to the task of
    protecting our people. Right now, responsibilities for homeland security
    are scattered across dozens of departments in Washington. By ending
    duplication and overlap, we will spend less on overhead and more on
    protecting America. And we must give the Department of Homeland Security
    every tool it needs to succeed.
        One essential tool this new Department needs is the flexibility to
    respond to terrorist threats that can arise or change overnight. The
    Department of Homeland Security must be able to move people and
    resources quickly, without being forced to comply with a thick book of
    bureaucratic rules.
        For example, we have three agencies working to safeguard our
    borders, the INS, the Customs Service, and the Border Patrol. They all
    have different cultures and different strategies but should be working
    together in a streamlined effort. Other Federal agencies dealing with
    national security already have this flexibility, the FBI and the CIA and
    the new Transportation Security Administration. It seems like to me, if
    it's good enough for these agencies, it should be good enough for the
    new Department of Homeland Security.
        In addition, the new Secretary of Homeland Security needs the
    authority to transfer some funds, limited funds, among Government
    accounts in response to terrorist threats. This requirement is nothing
    new; such authority is presently available to numerous agencies,
    including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of
    Agriculture, and the Department of Energy.
        The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would
    ensure the flexibility and authority needed for the Department of
    Homeland Security to effectively carry out its mission. The legislation
    now in the Senate would not. The Senate bill would not allow the new
    Secretary of Homeland Security to shift resources or streamline
    functions in response to a terrorist threat without a time-consuming
    approval process. And the legislation would keep in place a process that
    can take up to 18 months just to fire an employee.
        The Senate bill also provides no transfer authority for the
    Secretary of Homeland Security. Under the Senate bill, the Secretary
    would have to ask the President to submit a supplemental budget request
    to Congress, and then wait for Congress to act every time new terrorist
    threats presented a need for additional funding. In this war on terror,
    this is time we simply do not have.
        Even worse, the Senate bill would weaken the President's well-
    established authority to prohibit collective bargaining when a national
    security interest demands it. Every President since Jimmy Carter has
    used this authority, and a time of war is not time to limit a
    President's ability to act in the interest of national security.
        Senators need to understand I will not accept a homeland security
    bill that puts special interests in Washington ahead of the security of
    the American people. I will not accept a homeland security bill that
    ties the hands of this administration or future administrations in
    defending our Nation against terrorist attacks.
        America has been engaged in this war for nearly a year, and we've
    made real progress. Yet more work remains. A new Department of Homeland
    Security will help us to protect our country, but only if it has the
    tools to get the job done. I urge the Senate to follow the House's lead
    and pass legislation that gives the Department the flexibility and the
    authority it needs to protect the American people.
        Thank you for listening.

    [[Page 1559]]

    Note: The address was recorded at 11:35 a.m. on September 6 in the
    Cabinet Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on September
    7. The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press
    Secretary on September 6 but was embargoed for release until the
    broadcast. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish
    language transcript of this address.