WASHINGTON, June 8: US President George W. Bush plugged his proposal for a new Department of Homeland Security in his weekly radio address on Saturday, urging listeners to contact their legislators to press for the plan.

“Only the United States Congress can create a new department of government, so I’m asking for your help in encouraging your representatives to support my plan,” said Bush, addressing the US public. “We face an urgent need, and we must move quickly, this year, before the end of the congressional session.”

The president, who announced the ambitious plan in a speech Thursday, hopes to see it approved before the 107th session of Congress adjourns, scheduled for early October, and before legislative elections in November.

The new department would unite “essential agencies that must work more closely together,” including the Coast Guard and Border Patrol, the Customs Service, Immigration officials, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Bush said.

Its creation would entail the most extensive reorganization of the federal government since the 1940s, when then-president Harry Truman created a single Department of Defense and the National Security Council, he pointed out.—AFP