The names of a number of possible candidates to head Homeland Security continue to circulate in this town. But the Dems are moving cautiously to make the pick.
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
WASHINGTON— As Democrats for the first time take over the five-year-old Department of Homeland Security, the watchword for Obama transition aides is caution.
The next secretary will inherit the politically perilous tasks of securing the nation’s borders against illegal immigration, as well as leading the federal response to natural disasters. He or she will take the helm of a $40 billion, 200,000-worker bureaucracy still in the throes of the most complex government merger since World War II, while contending with more than 80 congressional oversight committees and subcommittees.
Above all, the new secretary must help prevent the next terrorist attack on American soil, whatever form it might take.
Little wonder that Democrats are treading carefully.
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