On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee will meet to discuss the much-debated Chemical Facility Anti Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, which requires that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) establish security standards for facilities that produce, handle, or store potentially dangerous chemicals. Enacted in the aftermath of 9/11, the program was …
Cybersecurity legislation will likely be taken up by the Senate tomorrow. Regrettably, the idea that we just need to do something about cybersecurity seems to be trumping the view that we need to do it right. The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (CSA), authored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I–CT) and Susan …
A July 24 article in the online Mobile Magazine describes the advanced technology of Raytheon’s Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) for destroying missile warheads in space. The article is right to tout the capabilities of this and similar anti-missile kill vehicles. The EKV is the payload portion of anti-missile missiles and …
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently sent a letter urging Senator Daniel Inouye (D–HI), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to conclude a test phase of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) in fiscal year (FY) 2013. MEADS is a trilateral anti-aircraft and missile program with Germany and Italy. …
Today the House Judiciary Committee will discuss the technological and innovative power that cloud computing offers to individuals, the private sector, and the government. Cloud computing is the movement of IT capabilities away from individual computers and servers to centralized providers that manage IT resources for their users via the …
Today, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Understanding the Homeland Security Threat Landscape.” In announcing the hearing, committee chairman Peter King (R–NY) explained: U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence communities have made significant progress over the past 15 months since the killing of Osama bin Laden. However, even …
Despite the disastrous defense cuts that are looming with sequestration, the two main players—President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV)—see the situation as win-win. Sequestration will hit several areas in government, but defense will eat the lion’s share: 47 percent of the cuts come from defense, considerably less …
Constituents at a Great Falls, Montana, town hall meeting understand what many in Congress do not seem to understand: Cuts mandated by budget sequestration will erode the defense industrial base to the point where irreversible damage may be done to military readiness. Recounting a town hall meeting with Congressman Denny …
