But Will We Be Any Safer?

If there were a political version of the color-coded terrorism-alert system, Senate Republican leader Trent Lott would have gone to orange last week as he braced for an emergency Republican caucus. Several G.O.P. Senators were in revolt over news that House Republicans had tinkered with legislation creating a Homeland Security Department, slipping in provisions that had little to do with making the country safer but a lot to do with making special-interest groups happy. Lott figured he could get House leaders to delete the most egregious items when Congress returns in January, so he had his staff hang a sign with a single word on it: TRUST.

Just before the Senators filed in, Lott placed a Santa hat on the sign, a reminder that the legislation, which would set in motion the largest reorganization of the Federal Government since the Truman Administration, was the biggest thing standing between a cranky lame-duck Senate and its holiday break. Lott got the deal he wanted, but the props speak to larger realities about the new department. It's a creature born of politics, haste and a leap of faith. President Bush initially rejected the concept, then embraced it last June amid revelations of large-scale pre-9/11 intelligence failures. But will merging 22 federal agencies into a single department whose primary mission is fighting terrorism actually make us any safer? Probably, the experts say--but not as safe as we might hope. A lot depends on the answers to five key questions:

1. What will it do?

More than 60% of the 170,000 people assigned to the new department will be involved in controlling the nation's borders. The idea, says Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, is to present "one face at the border." It's long overdue. Such a merger was talked about as far back as Herbert Hoover's Administration, but the departments that control services like the Coast Guard (Transportation), Immigration and Naturalization (Justice) and Customs (Treasury) have jealously guarded their turf. Merging them will be a culture shock, as each has its traditions and ways of doing business.

The sprawling department will also be charged with creating a nationwide communications system to make sure that everyone who needs information has it and knows whom to give it to, from Microsoft security and privacy experts in Redmond, Wash., to beat cops in Tallahassee, Fla. And in the terrifying event that the system fails and a major terrorist attack occurs, the department will be responsible for ensuring that cities and states have the resources they need to respond, whether it's adequate hospital beds or medical personnel trained to recognize smallpox.

2. Could such a department have prevented 9/11?