Rep. Schneider gets federal post Durham Republican to be homeland security prosecutor for Maine

AUGUSTA – As an experienced prosecutor and retired Army captain trained in counterterrorism, Bill Schneider and his soon-to-be new employers think he can bring just the right background to a full-time position as homeland security prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maine.

“After September 11, I knew that I had to do something,” says Schneider, a second-term Republican state representative from Durham who serves as deputy minority floor leader in the Maine House of Representatives.

All 93 U.S. attorneys’ offices around the nation are filling such positions, said U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby, the top federal prosecutor in Maine.

“Bill will be developing this office’s terrorism effort,” Silsby says.

Schneider, 43, plans to assume the new job as soon as his legislative term ends in December.

“The first role will be to prosecute any terrorism-related crimes that occur in Maine,” he says. “But I think on a day-to-day basis, I’ll be working on making Maine more prepared for terrorist attack.

“I think that’ll involve coordinating all the different players, creating some dialogue, hopefully, among Border Patrol, Coast Guard, airports, people who represent all the potential targets.”

Whatever the focus at any one time, he says, “it will involve both preparedness and response.”

A 1981 West Point graduate, Schneider served in the Army for a little more than five years, most of it in Army Special Forces.

He subsequently went to work for an engineering company, supervising security system design and installation, before earning a law degree in 1993 from the University of Maine School of Law, where he was class graduation speaker.

From 1993 to 1998, Schneider served in the Maine Attorney General’s Office as a drug task force prosecutor before entering the Legislature. Two years ago, his GOP colleagues chose Schneider to be the assistant to House Minority Leader Joe Bruno.

A conservative voice in the House, and a friendly presence who uses a wheelchair, Schneider says he will miss the camaraderie and ever-changing challenges of the Legislature.

“It’s very rewarding. You get to deal with some really terrific people,” he says. “Contrary to public opinion, most of the people who are here are here for the right reasons, because they want to make a difference.”

Schneider was described as a potential pick for U.S. attorney himself before Silsby, who had been an assistant U.S. attorney since 1977 and chief of the criminal division since 1994, got the nod last year.

Silsby, who announced the establishment of Maine’s anti-terrorism task force in the wake of the attacks in New York and Washington, says the homeland security assignment seems “perfectly suited” for Schneider.

Like many others, Schneider says post-attack warnings – whether designed for mass distribution or not – may be hard for ordinary Americans to evaluate.

“I think it’s still unclear what a citizen like you or me is supposed to do with a warning like that,” he says. “I think people’s senses are generally heightened since September 11, and the warnings may help fight that tailing off a little bit. But I think people have a big question about what specifically they can change about their lives to support” security efforts.

“Because I think people are patriotic. You know, people love their country and their state, and they want to do whatever they can,” Schneider says.

Looking toward his own new job, Schneider says he will be happy to contribute. “The prospect is really exciting. It really is a blank slate,” he says.