The proposed agency would take over the Border Patrol from Justice, Customs from Treasury, the Coast Guard from Transportation, the FBI counterterrorism center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), among others.

CNN: Panel recommends sweeping national security changes

The hearing, called by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Homeland Security, heard expert testimony from the FBI, the Treasury Department, and two independent experts including Alex Alexiev of the Center for Security Policy.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Senate hearing finds Saudi Arabia to be ��epicenter�� of Wahhabi ��enterprise of terror��

The proposal was devised by Rosanne Altshuler of Rutgers University (a former director of the Tax Policy Center) and Harry Grubert, a career economist at the Treasury Dept.

FORBES: A New Way To Address The International Tax Mess For U.S. Companies

"There is no possibility of repeal of the estate tax with Congress so divided, " says Ronald Pearlman, a former Reagan Administration Treasury official and now head of the graduate tax law program at Georgetown University Law Center.

FORBES: Where's My Tax Cut?

Eugene Steuerle, co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and a leader at the Treasury Department of the 1986 tax reform.

FORBES: Tax Reform? Not Exactly

The Dow Jones industrial average soared 500 points late in the day Friday after word that Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the person at the center of all the negotiations over troubled banks in the last few months, would be the next Treasury Secretary.

FORBES: Uncle Sam Pumps Up Citi