#4: A Cyber Leadership Deficit There has been a lot of talk about cyber security over the last few months. The Obama Administration named it as one of its number one homeland security priorities. Everyone in Washington has an opinion about what should be done from regulating the private sector to more research and development. There is also disagreement over who should take the lead. Some plans start with the private sector, some start with Congress. Others think the White House should direct the strategy for cyber security, and there …
#5: Interagency Cooperation, The Missing Piece of the Puzzle Eight years after the September 11 attacks, Congress has enacted legislation in order to keep America safe. They created the Department of Homeland Security not just to integrate the activities of over two dozen agencies and programs, but also to lead a national effort of federal, state, and local government as well as nongovernmental organizations and the private sector. Yet building a core of homeland security professionals— an important homeland security task has been left unaddressed. Heritage expert Jim Carafano explains: …
Monday, September 14, in New York City, federal and city counterterrorism agents raided homes of those suspected to be involved in terrorist plots against the United States. As part of a joint terrorism task force activity, this is a big win for law enforcement, and it shows just how far information sharing has come in terms of linking together federal, state and local resources. There are those that try to say the U.S. isn’t any safer since 9/11. Or that the threat has gone away. Neither are true. As my …
Meeting with his counterparts from Mexico and Canada earlier this month, President Barack Obama said that he expected the Democratic-controlled Congress, after completing work on health care, energy and financial regulation, to draft comprehensive immigration reform bills this year. This time frame acknowledges that no immigration legislation will be passed until at least 2010. But as Heritage visiting fellow Matt Meyer points out in a new report there is still plenty that states can do, in the meantime, under their own constitutionally-protected traditional police powers to tackle the problem right …
This evening John McCain and Barack Obama will appear together (but speak separately) as part of a nationally televised forum at Columbia University in Manhattan. The two presidential candidates have promised to set aside politics to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and will instead lay out their personal visions on civic engagement and service. The candidates’ call for unity on this day is admirable, but the chosen topic of the event is also yet another missed opportunity for the American people to hear about how each candidate …
Seven years ago on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, America was changed forever. The peace and calm in New York and Washington, D.C., was shattered by terrorist hijackers. With it came the realization we faced a long war to defeat terrorism and preserve freedom. Heritage’s James Jay Carafano says America is better prepared to deal with the threat of transnational terrorism than it was on 9/11, he explained in a paper marking last year’s anniversary. However, there’s no question the threat still remains. Carafano says these three facts are …
Kentucky is to be the recipient of $11.9 million federal dollars in pork. A Kentucky news station reported that the money was “to increase preparedness and response measures across the state,” however such federal grants are actually undermining state homeland security preparedness measures. According to a Heritage WebMemo by Homeland Security Policy Analyst Jena McNeill, since 9/11 the federal government has allocated $23 billion in homeland security grants. This money has essentially become another entitlement. States are cutting their own spending on homeland security, especially in these harder economic times, …
Maryland announced this week that the state government plans to create a single communications system for all of the state’s first responders, as noted in a recent article in The Examiner. Ensuring effective emergency communications remains an important issue on the nation’s homeland security to do list. A Heritage paper I wrote last year with Richard Weitz about improving emergency communications discussed the need and necessary measures for improved communication among emergency responders. In its final report, the 9/11 Commission stated that “the inability to communicate was a critical element …
With an estimated 12 million to 15 million illegal immigrants in the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) certainly has a lot on its plate. However, many are now criticizing ICE for its lack of action not against illegal immigrants, but American citizens. In raids since October 2007, ICE has arrested 3,750 people on charges in relation to illegal immigrants in the workplace. With jobs in the U.S. being a great attraction to illegal immigrants, their prevalence in the American workforce is a grave problem. However, this is not …
Disaster management is over-federalized. This chart from a recent Heritage Backgrounder, The Local Role in Disaster Response: Lessons from Katrina and the California Wildfires, makes it abundantly clear. With the exception of the Johnson and Reagan administrations, the number of federal disaster declarations has steadily and dramatically grown. By the end of President Bush’s second term, the average yearly declarations for this administration will be at 130 –nearly a 50 percent increase from the Clinton administration’s yearly average of 88. In other words, FEMA takes on a new declaration every 3 days. …
