WASHINGTON, June 13: President George W. Bush’s homeland security advisor Tom Ridge acknowledged on Wednesday that lawmakers had deep concerns about the creation a new super agency aimed at protecting Americans from terrorists, but insisted the idea had broad support.

Lawmakers raised concerns around several issues, including how enhanced border security would affect commercial interaction, and how intelligence is gathered and processed, he said.

Nevertheless, Ridge said, “there seems to be fairly broad support for the notion or the president’s notion that there ought to be one place” where all information gathered is analyzed.

“While there will be some disagreement, it was done in a very respectful way, and with a goal toward working our way through points of disagreement to a final product, and that’s the new Department of Homeland Security,” Ridge told reporters, after briefing legislators in a 90-minute closed-door meeting on the House floor.

One lawmaker emerging from the meeting described his worries about how such a massive reorganization of US federal agencies would be structured and how it would be funded.

“My concern is that you can have all the recognition in the world, but if you don’t have the resources you’re still going to have empty boxes on the chart,” said Representative David Obey. “The transition costs are going to be enormous,” he warned.

Bush, stung by criticism that his government mishandled clues to the September 11 strikes, proposed the creation of the new Cabinet-level department to oversee intelligence on terrorism and marshal efforts to prevent future attacks.

If approved, the future Department of Homeland Security would employ some 170,000 people and command an annual budget of 37 billion dollars, drawing its resources from roughly 100 government agencies and eight departments.

It would oversee more than 44,000 members of the Coast Guard, 41,000 transportation security agents, 39,500 immigration officers and 21,700 customs agents.

The department would aim to keep would-be terrorists out of the United States and enhance travel security; heighten emergency preparedness and response; thwart or mitigate chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks; and protect the nation’s infrastructure.

It would also act as a clearinghouse for information linked to terrorism — a key area of concern amid revelations of the CIA and FBI’s botched handling of intelligence linked to the September attacks.

But Obey was not convinced that the creation of a new department was the solution.

“One of the huge problems we have right now is that we have huge amounts of material collected that’s not being used, it’s laying on the floor” due to a lack of translators and other manpower.

“That’s not going to be improved by having another super agency.”

Even Republicans aligned with the White House admitted that passing legislation to create the department, which inevitably would cut into several lawmaker committees’ jurisdictions, would be tough.

“It’ll be a heavy legislative lift, but we can do it,” said House Majority Leader Dick Armey.—AFP