"Deputy Homeland Security Chief to Retire"

Monday, December 20, 2004

Deputy Homeland Security Chief to Retire
BY LESLIE MILLER
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON - James Loy, the No. 2 official at the Homeland Security
Department and former head of the Transportation Security Administration, is
retiring, the agency announced Monday.

Loy will remain on the job until March 1 or until a successor is confirmed
by the Senate. His resignation, coupled with Homeland Security Secretary Tom
Ridge's planned Feb. 1 departure, means the 180,000-person agency will be
without its two top officials.

Ridge thanked Loy for his service, saying "his presence, leadership and
counsel have been invaluable to the country."

Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., chairman of the House Select Committee on
Homeland Security, said he was concerned by the dual resignations.

"The loss of two key leaders in rapid succession has to be worrisome and
replacements of their caliber will be hard to find," he said.

President Bush's original choice to replace Ridge, former New York City
Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, withdrew his name after acknowledging he
had employed an illegal alien as a nanny and failed to make required Social
Security payments. Bush has yet to make another choice.

Loy, 62, retired as the Coast Guard's commandant in 2002, but soon returned
to work to help run the fledgling Transportation Security Administration,
then part of the Transportation Department. He soon was tapped to head the
agency, where he oversaw the federalizing of the airport screener work force
in less than a year.

Loy was praised for meeting difficult deadlines for implementing new
aviation security procedures. He also earned kudos for getting rid of
so-called nuisance rules for air travelers, such as requiring ticket agents
to ask passengers if they packed their own bags.

But the TSA came under fire during Loy's tenure for its spending practices,
lack of contract oversight and rapid growth of its work force, which has
since been capped.

ON THE NET

Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov

Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov


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