We do view all e-mails that are sent to our departments for security reasons.
Tom Ridge, the president's adviser on homeland security, was promoting the new cabinet-level department for domestic security today, saying the current diffuse system led to "ad hoc" responses.
At issue is whether the secretary of a new department for domestic security will be able to drop, on the grounds of national security, many of the rules governing the hiring, firing and transferring of federal employees, as well as their wages.
The US department for homeland security said it had taken a "number of steps" to enhance aviation security last night.
A spokesman for the department for homeland security, however, did not respond to requests for comment.
For months after Sept. 11 last year, Mr. Bush and the Republicans adamantly opposed efforts to create a department for domestic security.
Three times Stevens asked the state department for extra security, and three times he was rebuffed or ignored.
BUREAUCRATIC SECURITY -- Responding to Congressional oversight hearings on terrorism, President Bush on June 6 asked Congress to create a new cabinet department for homeland security.
The agreement allows the US department for homeland security to access data from the Swift database (the conduit for all global financial transactions).
At all three stops, Mr. Bush spoke about Iraq and his plans to create a new cabinet department for domestic security.
President Bush today predicted a difficult fight in Washington over his plan to create a new cabinet department for domestic security and said members of Congress would have to give up some authority before the department became reality.
