Decision Points

morning thinking about the danger we faced and the responsibilities I carried. I was also keenly aware that presidents had a history of overreaching during war. John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which banned public dissent. Abraham Lincoln suspended
habeas corpus
during the Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt ordered Japanese Americans interned during World War II. When I took the oath of office, I swore to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.” My most solemn duty, the calling of my presidency, was to protect America—within the authority granted to me by the Constitution.

    The immediate task after 9/11 was to harden our nation’s defenses against a second attack. The undertaking was daunting. To stop the enemy, we had to be right 100 percent of the time. To harm us, they had to succeed only once.
    We implemented a flurry of new security measures. I approved the deployment of National Guard forces to airports, put more air marshals on planes, required airlines to harden cockpit doors, and tightened procedures for granting visas and screening passengers. Working with state and local governments and the private sector, we increased security at seaports, bridges, nuclear power plants, and other vulnerable infrastructure.
    Shortly after 9/11, I appointed Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania to a new senior White House position overseeing our homeland security effort. Tom brought valuable management experience, but by early 2002, it had become clear that the task was too large to be coordinated out of a small White House office. Dozens of different federal agencies shared responsibility for securing the homeland. The patchwork approach was inefficient, and there was too much risk that something would slip through the seams. One egregious example came in March 2002, when the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) mailed a letter notifying a Florida flight school that it had granted student visas to Mohamed Atta and Marwan al Shehhi . The person opening the letter must have been shocked. Those were the two pilots who had flown airplanes into the Twin Towers on 9/11.
    I was shocked, too. As I told the press at the time, “I could barely getmy coffee down.” The sloppy error exemplified the need for broader reform. INS, a branch of the Justice Department, wasn’t the only agency struggling with its new homeland security responsibilities. The Customs Service , reporting to the Treasury Department, faced the enormous task of securing the nation’s ports. They shared that responsibility with the Coast Guard, which was part of the Transportation Department.
    Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut had been making the strong case for creating a new federal department that unified our homeland security efforts. I liked and respected Joe. He was a solid legislator who had put the bitterness of the 2000 election behind him and understood the urgency of the war on terror. Initially I was wary of his idea for a new department. A big bureaucracy would be cumbersome. I was also anxious about a massive reorganization in the midst of crisis. As J.D. Crouch , later my deputy national security adviser, put it: “When you are in the process of beating swords into plowshares, you can’t fight and you can’t plow.”
    Over time, I changed my mind. I recognized that having one department focused on homeland security would align authority and responsibility. With the agencies accountable for protecting the country under one roof, there would be fewer gaps and less redundancy. I also knew there was a successful precedent for restructuring the government in wartime. At the dawn of the Cold War in 1947, President Harry Truman had consolidated the Navy and War departments into a new Department of Defense. His reforms strengthened the military for decades to come.
    I decided the reorganization was worth the risk. In June 2002, I addressed the nation from the White House to call on Congress to create a new Department of Homeland Security .
    Despite support from many lawmakers, the bill faced rough sledding. Democrats held up the legislation by insisting that the new department grant its employees extensive collective bargaining rights that did not apply in any other government agency. I was frustrated that Democrats would delay an urgent security measure to placate labor unions.
    Republican candidates took the issue to the voters in the 2002 midterm elections, and I joined them. On election day, our party