And that reminds me of some advice that my friend Jack Quinn gave me before going to Washington. I've received a lot of advice from Jack over the years, but this was actually good advice.

Jack advised - he said, "Rob, just remember one thing: Never screw up . . . on a slow news day!" Thanks, Jack. I've always tried to follow that advice.

Don't get me wrong. Washington's a great place. The turf wars, the power struggles that go on. The sharp elbows. It's hard to describe. Maybe it's best captured by the definition of a "friend" in Washington.

A friend there is defined as someone who stabs you . . . in the front.

Tom Holliday mentioned that all the border agencies are now under me. That brings to mind a story about J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime Director of the FBI.

Hoover received a memorandum from a subordinate, and after reading it, Hoover scribbled a cryptic note on the memo that read: "Watch the borders." Well, when J. Edgar Hoover said "jump," they jumped. So, FBI Agents were immediately dispatched to the border with Mexico and Canada.

Eventually, one of Hoover's aides summoned the courage to ask the Director - What were they watching for? Hoover explained that he was referring to the margins on the page of the memo. He thought they were too narrow!

Now, there are many differences between Hoover and me, but when I say, "Watch the borders," I really mean "Watch the borders."

Historic Times
In a more serious vein, it goes without saying that these are extraordinary times for our country - and for our federal government. As a nation, we face a challenge unlike any that we have faced in our history.

Unlike other adversaries we have faced down in our history - such as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union - Al Qaeda and its associated terrorist organizations work in the shadows - threatening us everywhere and yet striking us out of nowhere. In some sense, Al Qaeda presents the ultimate 21st Century threat, for it thrives on modern technology, and seeks to disappear among the billions of people and things and bytes moving from place to place in our globally integrated society.

And, Al Qaeda has vowed to acquire and use that most frightening of modern technologies - weapons of mass destruction - against the United States, and the global economy.

The people that knocked down those buildings on 9-11 have heard from us, and they will continue to hear from us. The battles of Afghanistan, and Iraq, have weakened Al Qaeda. They are on the run, and we are pursuing them to the farthest ends - and caves - of the Earth. But as the recent bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco demonstrate, Al Qaeda is still with us, and is still deadly dangerous.

As are other radical Islamist, Jihadist organizations that operate in concert with Al Qaeda - organizations like Jemah Islamiya and AIAI.

Al Qaeda and its associates have vowed to strike America again, even harder than 9-11. And so, we must have both a good offense and a good defense.

And that brings me to the Department of Homeland Security.

The Department of Homeland Security was created to address this threat to the American people and to our way of life. Regrettably, it is a threat that will be with us for years to come.

Just as the government reorganized itself in the years after 1945 to face the Soviet threat in the Cold War, the creation of DHS is the first step towards reorganizing and modernizing the federal government to defend our country against this quintessential 21st Century challenge.

Let there be no doubt. The American people are up to the task. But make no mistake, it will take hard work, resources, and - most importantly - the willingness to think anew.

Lincoln once said, in speaking of another challenging time in our nation's history:

"The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."

We are heeding Lincoln's words. As a nation, we are thinking and acting anew - in many different ways.

And one of those ways is by building a new department of government - under the leadership of Secretary Tom Ridge - that brings together most of the federal government's prevention, preparedness, and response capabilities under one roof. By putting those capabilities in one Department, our nation will be - and already is - better equipped and better able to face the terrorist threat.

DHS Organization
Within DHS, five major operational agencies have anti-terrorism prevention missions. They are the Coast Guard, Secret Service, TSA, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Some of you may have read that 22 agencies were put under the Department of Homeland Security. That's somewhat misleading, because it makes it sound like 22 entire agencies were simply picked up and placed within the Department. There are, in reality, about six primary agencies of DHS, and most of these were transferred intact, like the Coast Guard, Secret Service, and TSA. Then, there are some are start-ups like Science & Technology, and Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection ("IAIP").

But there is one very big actual merger, and that's U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP is the largest and most profound actual merger of personnel taking place within the Department of Homeland Security.

To create CBP, we took almost all of U.S. Customs and merged it with the immigration inspectors from the former INS, the agriculture inspectors at the borders from the Department of Agriculture, and the entire Border Patrol.

This is truly historic, because for the first time in our country's history, all agencies of the United States Government with significant border responsibilities are being unified into one agency of our government, one border agency.

This is a good government reform that has been advocated by at least seven studies since the Nixon Administration. Someone once said to me - "Well, if there were seven studies saying it should be done and it wasn't done, it must not have been a good idea." And I said to him, "How long have you been in Washington?"

I can assure you - it was and is a good idea. But it was not possible without 9-11, the worst attack on American soil in our history. The worst terrorist attacks anywhere in the history of the world. And it was not possible without creating a new Department of government. Before 9-11, the debate was: would the border agency be in Justice or in Treasury? Which congressional committees would lose power and jurisdiction?

Before March 1, there were separate immigration inspectors, agriculture inspectors, and customs inspectors at our ports of entry - each reporting to different supervisors, in different agencies, in completely different departments of our government. And, between our ports of entry, we had the Border Patrol, operating with little or no coordination with the inspectors at the ports of entry. This fragmentation was not just inefficient, it made America more vulnerable to international terrorists seeking to exploit the gaps between the border agencies.

Now, we are one agency, within one department. And, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection, we are creating, as Secretary Ridge has called it, "One Face at the Border," by forming one agency for our nation's borders.

What CBP Does
What does this unified border agency do? All people, vehicles, cargo, luggage, mail, and air express parcels, indeed, every person and thing from outside the United States must come through and be cleared by Customs and Border Protection.

On a typical day, CBP processes over 1.1 million arriving people, over 300,000 vehicles, over 57,000 trucks and cargo containers.

With over 40,000 employees, Customs and Border Protection makes up over one-fifth of the Department of Homeland Security. And that is not surprising when you realize how important the security of our borders is to the security of our homeland. Right here in Los Angeles, Customs and Border Protection has over 1,500 employees.

CBP in Los Angeles
Why do we have such a large presence in the LA area? One reason is the seaport, down the 110, down the Harbor Freeway. Of the top 10 container ports of the United States, the Port of Los Angeles is number 1 and the Port of Long Beach is number 2. By the way, the Port of New York is number 3.

The LA/Long Beach Seaport is the third largest in the world, after Hong Kong and Singapore. To put it in another perspective, 40% of all sea containers that come to the United States arrive here. That's pretty phenomenal for a place that has no natural harbor!

And, let's not forget about LAX. It's the third busiest airport in terms of international passengers. Over 7 and a half million people arrived at LAX from abroad last year.

Before March 1, U.S. Customs had about 450 personnel on board at LAX. Now, post March 1, with the addition of immigration and agriculture personnel, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has nearly 1,000 personnel stationed at LAX, one of our largest ports of entry.

Scope of the Merger & Status
LAX conveys, on a small scale, the scope of the Customs and Border Protection merger. I went from managing an agency with 22,000 personnel, to managing one of about 41,000 personnel. And the scope of the merger is about more than just size. This is one of the most complex and difficult mergers the federal government has ever undertaken.

The merger of Customs and Border Protection combines personnel from four different agencies - agencies that operate with different legal authorities, that have different uniforms, different cultures, different overtime policies, different pay grades, different personnel policies, including different systems for hiring, for performance appraisals, for awards and different disciplinary systems. We also have multiple training programs, four separate canine programs, and three different unions and six different bargaining units . . . I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

As complex as the government reorganization was after World War II with the creation of the Defense Department, CIA, and the National Security Council - none of them involved an actual merger and integration of several agencies into one large agency on the scale of Customs and Border Protection. This is a big deal.

So where do we stand after three and a half months . . . on Day 111? But whose counting?

We're making great progress! We have unified management of our personnel, both at headquarters in Washington and in the field. And I've designated one Port Director in charge of all inspectors - customs, immigration, and agriculture - at every Port of Entry.

As a result of suggestions made by Carly Fiorina when she met with Governor Ridge and me last fall, I've set up a Transition Management Office that is helping me decide how we become a unified agency as quickly as possible. It's made up of representatives from each of the "legacy" organizations that were transferred into CBP, which ensures an inclusive approach. And, as Carly Fiorina advised, the people I've put on the Transition Management are full time.

Some of the changes we're making you will be able to see, some you won't. But all of you have probably wondered why there were three different federal inspection agencies when you arrived at LAX or other international airports. So, one of the things we're doing is unifying primary inspection for all purposes. This means that soon, you will no longer have to run the gauntlet of going through three federal agencies - immigration, customs, and agriculture - when you arrive in the U.S. We'll start a unified primary inspection for all purposes at the major international airports next month, including LAX.

And, on March 1, we achieved an immediate increase in antiterrorism security. Effective March 1, 2003, I directed that all frontline, primary inspectors wear radiation detection devices at all ports of entry into the United States - land borders, airports, seaports. That's important in an era when, unfortunately, someone may attempt to bring an RDD, a so-called dirty bomb, into our country. This had not been possible before March 1, before the unification of the border agencies.

So, since March 1, in this and other ways, Customs and Border Protection has already made America safer than it was when we were four separate agencies in three different departments of government.

Focusing on Priority Mission / Twin Goals
Behind the steps we're taking to unify Customs and Border Protection, to bring about our merger, there is an overarching mission that motivates and unites us - that's the priority homeland security mission of our agency.

And for a border agency, that means preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering our country. It means making sure every person and every cargo shipment that poses a potential terrorist risk is scrutinized.

Let me digress for a moment to tell you a story that illustrates our mission, and the ironies of our globalized world. Two weeks ago, Customs and Border Protection inspectors stopped an individual with a suspicious sounding name - Najiah Bin Laden. It turned out that she is Osama Bin Laden's half sister. After some questioning, it became clear that she was not here for terrorist purposes; rather, she had come to the U.S. to attend her daughter's graduation from Princeton. This is the world we live in, and it's just one of the interesting vignettes from the frontlines of homeland security that cross my desk daily . . .

Customs and Border Protection also is continuing to perform all of the traditional missions of its predecessor agencies. These include everything from:

• seizing illegal drugs at the U.S. border;
• to apprehending people who attempt to enter the United States illegally;
• protecting our agricultural interests from harmful pests and diseases;
• regulating and facilitating international trade;
• collecting duties [$23 billion last year];
• and enforcing all U.S. laws at our country's borders.

I learned this on September 12 and 13, 2001, when wait times swelled to 12 hours and more at many of our major land border entry points. On 9-11, Customs went to its highest level of alert - short of shutting down our borders. And the consequences to our "just in time" economy were apparent. Auto plants began to shut down.

We must protect American lives, but we must also protect American livelihoods - our economy. That's why we have twin goals: (1) increasing security and (2) facilitating legitimate trade and travel. These goals don’t have to be mutually exclusive. As we've developed ways to make our borders more secure, we've also developed ways to ensure the more efficient flow of legitimate trade and travel.

How have we done this? We've done it (1) by using sophisticated detection technology at our borders, that screens rapidly, (2) by partnering with the private sector, and (3) by pushing the borders out, by extending our zone of security beyond our physical borders - so that American borders are the last line of defense, not the first line of defense.

CSI
One of our initiatives to do this is the Container Security Initiative.

By way of background, about 90% of all world cargo moves in cargo containers. In the United States, almost half of incoming trade (by value) arrives in containers on board large container ships. If a terrorist weapon were to be concealed inside a container, or if a container were used as a weapon, it would wreak havoc on global trade and the world economy.

With the Container Security Initiative, or "CSI," we are addressing that threat. CSI is our overseas program where we are identifying and screening high-risk containers before they leave foreign ports for the United States.

In its first phase, we focused on implementing CSI at the top 20 foreign ports, in terms of volume of containers shipped to the U.S. We started with the top 20 because they account for nearly 70% of all cargo containers arriving at U.S. seaports.

The nations that represent 19 of the top 20 ports have already agreed to join CSI. And you should know we are not just talking about implementing CSI. We're actually implementing it.

CSI is already "operational" at 13 ports worldwide. Those ports include the Ports of Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Antwerp, Belgium; Le Havre, France; Bremerhaven and Hamburg, Germany; Felixstowe, England; Gothenburg, Sweden; Yokohama, Japan; Singapore; and Hong Kong; as well as the three principal ports in Canada, Halifax, Montreal, and Vancouver.

So, we're moving out!

And as Secretary Ridge announced in the Port of Newark one week ago today, Customs and Border Protection will expand CSI beyond the top 20 foreign ports to many additional foreign ports.

C-TPAT
Another important CBP effort to extend our zone of security is the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism ("C-TPAT"), where we partner with the private sector - with the trade community, to implement security standards that better protect the entire supply chain against exploitation by terrorists.

And there's something in it for the companies, too. Expedited processing at our borders if they meet agreed upon security standards. Over 3,400 companies, including most of the major U.S. importers have signed up. C-TPAT is the largest government-private sector partnership to arise out of 9-11

Conclusion
Let me conclude my remarks today by giving an important real life example of what Customs and Border Protection does.

I'd like to bring back a photo I showed earlier - a photo of LAX - and tell you about Diana Dean.

She is a U.S. Customs inspector who works at Port Angeles, Washington. One night in December 2000, she was doing her job, asking questions of a man attempting to enter the country from Canada in a rental car at Port Angeles. That man was an Al Qaeda terrorist named Ahmad Ressam, and he had explosives in the trunk of his car that were intended to destroy Los Angeles International Airport.

That one Customs inspector was responsible for saving LAX, and for saving hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives. As a result of the work and instincts and training of Diana Dean, not only was a huge loss of life prevented, but Ressam was arrested and an Al Qaeda cell in the U.S. was identified and dismantled.

There are 28,000 uniformed CBP officers at our borders; there are 28,000 Diana Deans.

I hope that helps you understand the importance of the job the men and women of Customs and Border Protection are doing every day to protect our country.

Thank you.