House Leadership Bows to President on Security Dept

WASHINGTON, July 18 — The Republican leaders of the House said today that they planned to give the Bush administration almost all of what it wanted in a new Department of Homeland Security, proposing to restore to the department most of the agencies that committees had voted to remove.

Republican leaders had said all along that they intended to short-circuit the expected opposition from committee chairmen and rank-and-file members who were trying to maintain jurisdiction over agencies they have long overseen. A draft of a bill agreed to today closely hews to the changes the White House had said it would accept.

If approved by a special committee on homeland security this week and the full House next week, the bill would represent a significant victory for the administration, although it would clash with legislation being prepared in the Senate.

The ultimate shape of the department will not be clear until it is negotiated in a conference between the two chambers, probably in September. With the outcome still in flux, the Bush administration today exposed problems at its Transportation Security Administration by forcing its director out of his job.

The unexpected firing of John W. Magaw, only six months after the agency was established to protect travelers following the Sept. 11 attacks, came after weeks of skepticism from many in Congress that the agency was moving aggressively enough to take over passenger screening at the nation's airports and searching checked bags for bombs.

Today's agreement on a draft of the bill came at the same time as a joint conference committee agreed on an emergency $28.9 billion spending bill for the war in Afghanistan, new domestic security needs and assistance for New York City. The bill had been delayed for months because of partisan infighting and differences with the administration on the total amount, which Congress wanted to raise. Half of the money would go to the Defense Department. The bill includes $5.5 billion for New York and $205 million to keep Amtrak running through the fall.