Congress / Budget
No-fly no problem, Chertoff says
October 31st, 2008
No-fly and terrorist watch lists are not the vast and sticky databases of popular imagination, just waiting to ensnare innocent American air travelers.
And if you’ve ever been pulled out of a security line at an airport and made to wait (and wait) while your identification is confirmed, then told that someone with your name is on a watch list and, in future, you’d be well advised to show up hours (and hours) before your flight actually departs, well, that just might become a thing of the past.
HHS disputes GAO’s contention that it ‘lacks’ plan to protect first responders
October 24th, 2008
A bipartisan quartet from the House of Representatives has released a Government Accountability Office report that sets out five “key lessons” from the federal response to 9/11 that should be implemented to better protect first responders in the future.
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If you know something, say something
October 17th, 2008
Sharing is good for your career. That, essentially, is the message to turf-conscious American intelligence and counter-terrorism agents from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, who oversees the 16 federal organizations that make up the intelligence community.
The message, described in a recent ODNI statement, is promulgated in a new federal policy that “aims to increase the sharing of terrorism-related information among certain federal employees by making such exchanges a factor in annual performance appraisals.”
The purpose of that policy, according to the statement, is to “remove cultural barriers and create incentives to encourage collaboration.”
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Capitol Hill: Southwest Airlines raises the SecureScreen
September 29th, 2008
When Captain Paul Onorato, president of the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA), testified about air cargo safety before the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection, this past summer, he singled out Dallas, TX-based SouthWest Airlines, his employer, for going beyond present-day TSA and congressional screening requirements. He commended Southwest for stepping up to enhance security for the traveling public, "ahead of the mandates" for screening cargo, which only go into force in 2010, and for "physically screening air cargo as it arrives at the airport, commensurate with baggage screening, and [for investing] millions of the company’s money in the newest explosive detection technology."
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Capital Hill: Results from a biometric program at sea
September 15th, 2008
The U.S. Coast Guard, under a biometrics pilot program, has "interdicted at sea" and collected biometric data from 1,513 migrants, "resulting in nearly 300 matches against databases of wanted criminals, immigration violators, and others who have previously encountered government authorities."
Capitol Hill: National Bio-surveillance Center: Fully operational or not?
July 28th, 2008
Will the Department of Homeland Security meet the congressionally mandated Sept. 30, 2008 deadline to have the National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC), the centerpiece of U.S. government efforts to provide early detection and warning of biological threats, up and running and "fully operational"?
Based on July 16 testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science and Technology Subcommittee, the answer clearly depends on the meaning of the phrase "fully operational."
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We’ll get NECP over goal line before clock runs out, DHS’s Jamison tells Congress
July 15th, 2008
With tens of millions in fiscal year 2008 Interoperability Emergency Communications grants to the states and localities hanging in the balance, the chairman of a House homeland security subcommittee sought assurances from a senior DHS official that the National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP), which must be submitted to Congress before the grant monies are released, will be on Capitol Hill before the fiscal year deadline passes. The NECP was originally due to Congress in April 2008.
Capitol Hill: FEMA and Gulf Steam both say formaldehyde-contaminated trailers not their fault
July 14th, 2008
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, has released a statement saying that, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it "neither knowingly, nor willingly, purchased manufactured units from dealerships and manufacturers that contained levels of formaldehyde above existing construction standards, nor did FEMA's specifications encourage non-compliance with such standards."
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