Union-Tribune March 3, 2002 Ridge looks to merge border agencies Plans being rethought amid fierce resistance in Congress, agencies By MARCUS STERN, TOBY ECKERT and JOE CANTLUPE  COPLEY NEWS SERVICE  WASHINGTON – The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have triggered a nasty, hidden turf war between Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and the federal agencies that enforce the border. Ridge is considering a plan to consolidate the agencies. The idea has sparked opposition from committee and subcommittee chairmen on Capitol Hill who could lose their jurisdiction over border issues under the plan. Among the federal forces that might be affected are the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Customs Service and Immigration and Naturalization Service. Almost 2,000 Border Patrol agents and 500 INS inspectors are stationed in San Diego. After gauging resistance to the plan, Ridge now appears to be back-pedaling, and his best hope for forging a consolidated agency to oversee the border appears to rest with a strong endorsement from President Bush. "Congress will not do this on its own initiative," said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the House's leading proponent of consolidation. Ridge "and the president need to say this is important for the security of the country. If they come out and say that, I don't think any Cabinet secretaries are going to stand in the way." Ridge's recommendation to the president is expected soon. Proponents say the key question now is whether Ridge will stick to his guns and recommend full consolidation or suggest a compromise that is acceptable to the Cabinet secretaries, agency heads and congressional chairmen opposed to consolidation. In a recent interview, Ridge said he still was pushing for consolidation, but acknowledged the strong resistance. "I'm still of the mind that if we were designing a new approach to America's borders, we wouldn't have over a dozen Cabinet departments involved and 30 or 40 agencies involved. But that's just not the world. We've got people and organizations that have histories and cultural and technological connections" to border issues, he said. Ridge said officials are exploring "a range of options . . . up to significant consolidation, with options in the middle of partial consolidation." Ridge's effort to consolidate border security functions is shaping up as a major test of his clout in the administration and his ability to carry out his charge to coordinate domestic counter-terrorism efforts across dozens of federal agencies. The head of one border agency told his staff privately that he intends to go "toe-to-toe" with Ridge. The fierce resistance he has encountered at INS, Customs and other agencies has added to a growing perception on Capitol Hill that Ridge needs clear legal authority and spending power to retool agencies for homeland defense. "Rearranging departments is difficult in the best of circumstances, but it is impossible when you have no tools to do it. He's being resisted by every department that he wants to reorganize," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Redondo Beach. Harman, the top Democrat on the House homeland security subcommittee, is sponsoring legislation to give Ridge's office budget powers. His current powers flow from a presidential directive and his easy access to Bush. Efforts to reorganize the border enforcement agencies have come and gone. In 1993, then-Vice President Al Gore designed a far-reaching overhaul. In 1998, White House drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey called for coordinators to oversee the various border agencies. In each case, resistance from the executive and congressional bureaucracies torpedoed the proposals. "That's exactly what has happened this year," Thornberry said. Thornberry has introduced a bill to unite border enforcement agencies under the Federal Emergency Management Agency and rename it the National Homeland Security Agency. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., has introduced a similar bill in the Senate. The bills are patterned after recommendations made by a commission led by former Sens. Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. The panel, the U.S. Commission on National Security, issued its recommendations a year ago, months before the Sept. 11 attacks. It urged that FEMA be renamed the National Homeland Security Agency and that three existing federal border enforcement agencies be put within it: Border Patrol, Customs and Coast Guard. They currently are in three Cabinet departments – Justice, Treasury and Transportation, respectively. Oddly, neither the Hart-Rudman report nor the House and Senate bills make mention of INS inspectors, who do the same job as Customs inspectors, side by side with them, at the nation's ports of entry. Under the legislation, Customs inspectors would be part of the new National Homeland Security Agency while INS inspectors would remain in the Justice Department. While INS and Customs inspectors would continue doing the same job, they would wear different uniforms and belong to different chains of command, as they do now. "I think some adjustments (to the legislation) would make sense," Thornberry said, when asked about the omission. Meanwhile, opposition to consolidation includes union leaders such as T.J. Bonner of the National Border Patrol Council. "If there are no further terrorist attacks, I don't think the Ridge plan is going to happen," he said. "If there are, folks in Congress will be willing to do anything regardless of how ineffective it might be."