Washington ? Stung by intelligence failures, President Bush called on Congress Thursday night to remake the government with a terrorist-fighting Department of Homeland Security, warning that “thousands of trained killers are plotting to attack us.”

Congress welcomed the proposal, even as lawmakers intensified their inquiry into lapses before the Sept. 11 attacks, hearing from the FBI director as well as a whistle-blower who complained about the agency’s stifling bureaucracy

In a nationally broadcast address, Bush acknowledged that “suspicions and insights of some of our front-line agents did not get enough attention” and he urged employees of the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies to report anything that raises concerns.

“We need to know when warnings were missed or signs unheeded not to point the finger of blame, but to make sure we correct any problems, and prevent them from happening again,” the president said in his 13-minute address.

The new Department of Homeland Security would inherit 169,000 employees and $37.4 billion in budgets from the agencies it would absorb, including the Secret Service, the Coast Guard and the embattled immigration and customs services. The White House said it was the biggest government overhaul in a half-century.

Bush spoke from a lectern placed in the threshold of the White House’s Blue Room, with Washington’s stormy evening sky visible through the window over his shoulder a fittingly gloomy setting for his words of warning.

“America is leading the civilized world in a titanic struggle against terror,” the president said, a small American flag pin on his lapel. “Freedom and fear are at war and freedom is winning.”

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, who aides say is virtually certain to be Bush’s nominee to head the Cabinet post, conducted a blitz of TV interviews after the presidential speech.

“We’re asking the country to do a big thing at a time of crisis, and I believe they’re going to do it,” Ridge said.

Bush hopes to have the department in place by Jan. 1.

The president said that based on what he knows, “I do not believe anyone could have prevented the horror of Sept. 11. Yet we now know that thousands of trained killers are plotting to attack us and this terrible knowledge requires us to act different.”

Congressional response

Reaction was generally positive in Congress, though Democrats said Bush’s action was overdue and likely to be overhauled on Capitol Hill.

“I think they saw they were getting behind the wave,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., co-sponsor of a homeland security reform bill, said, “We’ve got to our act together, and this is the best way to do it quickly.”

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said he wasn’t sure a reorganization was needed. “The question is whether shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic is the way to go,” he said.

White House officials privately acknowledged the proposal could be drastically watered down in turf wars as the affected agencies and the 88 congressional committees and subcommittees that oversee them fight to retain power.

Bush aides also fear that conservatives will view the proposal as a spread of government bureaucracy. “The reason to create this department is not to increase the size of the government, but to increase its focus and effectiveness,” Bush said.

FBI testimony

The White House unveiled the proposal hours before Bush’s address just as FBI Director Robert Mueller took his seat before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain why warning signals were missed prior to the September attacks.

“The need for change was apparent even before Sept. 11. It has become more urgent since then,” Mueller said in a nationally televised hearing.

Later, FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley told the lawmakers mistakes are inevitable in an agency hampered by an “ever-growing bureaucracy.”

The White House said its reorganization will not cost more money; it will shuffle current operations within the government without expanding the bureaucracy.

The proposal itself is a marked reversal for Bush. He rejected pleas from Congress last fall to create a Cabinet position and chose instead to install Ridge as an informal adviser. That shielded Ridge from being compelled to testify before Congress.

Four elements

The new department would have four divisions:

l Border Transportation and Security, which would take over the Immigration and Naturalization Service from the Department of Justice, the Customs Service from Treasury and the Coast Guard from the Department of Transportation.

Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection, which would draw from several agencies including the FBI and CIA to fuse and analyze information about potential threats.

Emergency Preparedness and Response, which would include FEMA, now an independent agency.

Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures, which would take over the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California. The departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture would lose divisions to this office, which would prepare the country for a full range of terrorist threats.

The Secret Service, which specializes in threat assessments and security at high-profile events, would remain intact after moving from Treasury to the new department.

It was unclear what authority any new secretary of homeland security would have over the FBI and CIA. A senior administration official briefing reporters at the White House said the secretary could not order only strongly suggest that the FBI investigate a lead.