Ridge Confirmed, Homeland Security includes ATF Revamp
February 10, 2003
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
On Jan. 22, the US Senate approved former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge by a 94-0 vote as the first secretary of the new Department of Homeland Security (HS).
“It is essential that Gov. Ridge understand that he will be responsible not only for defending the homeland, but also for defending against the abuse of power within the new department,” Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) said before the vote, according to United Press International.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said Ridge would be assuming “a Cabinet post that may well be the most challenging position created by Congress during the last 50 years.”
The following senators, all Democrats, failed to vote: Dianne Feinstein (CA); Tom Harkin (IA); Ernest Hollings (SC); Daniel Inouye (HI); John Kerry (MA), and Joseph Lieberman (CT).
Congress last fall approved the creation of the new cabinet department in the biggest overhaul of federal agencies since the Department of Defense was created in 1947. Over the next few years, the Homeland Security Department will combine the functions of about 22 agencies and 170,000 federal workers.
The new HS combines the Secret Service, Coast Guard, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Border Patrol, Transportation Security Administration and other security and rescue agencies into one department. It has control of US borders along 7,000 miles of land bordering Mexico and Canada.
Ridge, 57, a decorated Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, had previously served as a congressman and governor of Pennsylvania before joining the White House as the top adviser to President Bush on domestic security and terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
Gunowner Concerns
His relations with gunowners in Pennsylvania were almost always strained while he served as governor. He was also named—along with the State Police—in a lawsuit over the state’s practice of maintaining a permanent database registry of all gunowners in the state. (See related story in this issue.)
Ridge took over the new Cabinet department immediately after confirmation, and HS officially opened for business after he was sworn in on Jan. 24. Before the new department was created, he had headed the non-Cabinet-level White House Office of Homeland Security.
Former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, currently head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, will be undersecretary of HS. His responsibilities will range from border control to aviation security.
The department will have its own analytical unit that will examine intelligence gathered by the CIA, FBI and other agencies to look for clues about terrorist plots. But those agencies will continue to be separate, which may be good for those who are concerned by the threat to civil liberties posed by the government reshuffling in the wake of the terrorist attacks. On the other hand, the traditional separation of responsibilities and interagency rivalries blamed for the failure to provide advance warnings of the Sept. 11 attacks can be expected to continue, even with the new agency.
In a related governmental reshuffling, the diverse assignments of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) have been reshuffled.
The newly named Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (still to be referred to as ATF) officially moved to the Department of Justice on Jan. 24, integrating and enhancing the federal government’s law enforcement operations.
The move comes as a result of the Homeland Security legislation, which split the Bureau into two entities. About 550 old ATF employees will become part of the new Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (ATTT) and will remain at Treasury, continuing to regulate and collect revenue from the alcohol and tobacco industries.
New History
ATF Director Bradley A. Buckles, a veteran of 28 years with the agency, said, “On this day, ATF looks backward in closing the final chapter in its history of honorable service. It looks forward at the same time to beginning a new history, one whose first chapter will be written by some 4,600 special agents, inspectors, regulatory specialists, forensic auditors and laboratory technicians.”
“The bureau,” he added, “appreciates the cooperative and gracious reception it has received from Attorney General Ashcroft and his team during the two-month transition. We look forward to a long and successful working relationship with our fellow law enforcement organizations within Justice.”
Under the Justice Department, ATF will continue to perform the law enforcement functions relating to firearms, explosives, and arson. It will also administer the US Criminal Code provisions concerning alcohol and tobacco smuggling and diversion.
The move to Justice brings to a close a 200-year functional history at the Treasury Department that dates back to the collection of the first excise tax imposed on distilled spirits in 1791, and includes the breakup of the “Whisky Ring” of the 1870s, the exploits of the “Untouchables” during Prohibition, and the investigation of the Washington-area sniper case last year.
Since becoming a separate bureau within the Treasury Department in 1972, ATF has served a unique role. It has been a law enforcement agency that apprehended armed, violent criminals, bombers, and arsonists, and also collected taxes since alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and ammunition are all taxable commodities. The bureau was a regulator of the legal alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives industries, exercising oversight, issuing regulations, and helping those industries voluntarily comply with government guidelines.
ATF and Justice Department officials say the shift will give the ATF a tighter focus on law enforcement, and will allow it to coordinate more closely with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies.
But the shift had been proposed years ago; it was debated and rejected for a long time. The reshuffling had met with resistance from some in the FBI, which has had a rocky relationship with the ATF and which historically has sought to gain more control over firearms and explosives cases.
According to The New York Times, the change at ATF is also attracting scrutiny from gun control groups, which fear the agency’s mission to regulate gun purchases will be compromised by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, a strong gun rights advocate and lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. The NRA has had its own run-ins with the ATF, which it has often characterized as overzealous in its treatment of innocent gunowners.
“You couldn’t find a scarier time to put the ATF in the Department of Justice, when you have the most pro-gun attorney general in history,” The Times quoted Matthew Nosanchuk, litigation director for the anti-gun Violence Policy Center. “It’s like the fox guarding the henhouse.”
Legitimate Concerns
NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox told The Times, “Whether ATF is at DOJ (Department of Justice) or the Department of Education, it makes no difference. There are still legitimate concerns and issues that we’ll be keeping an eye on.”
“They’re going to come under the same boss, which will make it easier than it was in the past, when you had Justice and Treasury in competition,” said Richard J. Gallo, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. “There might be fewer elbows thrown around.”
Still, one of the biggest potential stumbling blocks is the often-strained relationship between the ATF and the FBI, said many government officials and outside observers. The two agencies have clashed periodically, most notably after the Waco and Ruby Ridge screw-ups.
Most recently, an unidentified midlevel FBI official wrote an internal memo asserting that the ATF was too small, lacked sufficient training to lead investigations and had a “lack of strategic vision,” The Times recalled. FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III quickly discounted that document, and pledged his support for moving the ATF into the Justice Department.
Buckles said many of the reported tensions are “exaggerated,” and he pointed to the recent sniper investigation in the Washington area as a prime example of cooperation between the two.
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