Washington, DC – Senator Schumer: Break up Homeland Security Department

Washington, DC – Sen. Charles Schumer said today that the Department of Homeland Security should be broken up, particularly after what he called continued incompetence in a plan to require passports to drive across the Canadian border, as was reported here on Vos Iz Neias.

The New York lawmaker, who also heads the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee, said he was trying to convince his party to dissolve DHS into smaller agencies, but said he was unsure if there were enough votes to dismantle the agency formed in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. “I would be for breaking it up and it’s something we’re going to talk about,” said Schumer. “It’s a mess. There’s no focus, it’s a conglomerate and it’s too large.”

The senator was particularly incensed over the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, or WHTI, which he said was far from becoming a reality.
The WHTI requires adults crossing U.S. land borders to show a passport or a still-to-be-developed passcard, starting in as little as seven months.

Schumer said the federal timetable is wishful thinking. “You can have both security and commerce if you have one other ingredient, and that’s competence,” the senator told a group of New York business leaders, blaming the problem on systemic incompetence in the department. “The incompetence of the homeland security department drives me crazy,” he said. [AP]