Center of Excellence

By Caitlin Harrington, CQ Staff

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday that he supports the development over the next decade of a single identification card, used to access a variety of secure areas, such as federal buildings, land borders and airplanes.

Chertoff said the card would not be tantamount to a national ID card. Some privacy advocates and security experts oppose national ID cards, saying the government might abuse universal access to citizens’ names, addresses and other basic information.
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By Keith Perine, CQ Staff

The Justice Department on Thursday questioned the constitutionality of a 1978 law governing intelligence surveillance as applied to the administration’s anti-terrorism efforts.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales sent a 42-page legal analysis to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that amounted to a sweeping legal defense of President Bush’s authorization of warrantless surveillance of American citizens in the United States.
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By Caitlin Harrington, CQ Staff

Airline passengers who buy a government-approved security pass may soon see a day when they do not have to take off their shoes or coats at security checkpoints — or even take their laptop computers out of their cases.

The benefits could become a part of the Transportation Security Administration’s Registered Traveler program, in which airline passengers receive expedited clearance at security checkpoints in exchange for paying a fee and submitting to a background check.
Private companies will start running the program nationwide in June.
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By Benton Ives-Halperin, CQ Staff

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are testing portable nuclear detectors this month in an effort to help state and local agencies make informed equipment purchases.

The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), a division of DHS working to counter nuclear threats, will put the detection devices through their paces, paying particular attention to effective ranges and their ability to identify specific nuclear materials, including highly enriched uranium and plutonium.
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By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff

State and local first-responders would benefit from regional Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offices across the country, experts said Monday.

Establishing regional offices, similar to what the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has, would help federal, state and local officials work together to prepare for and respond to disasters, said William C. Moore, a retired Army general, and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
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By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff

Senators investigating the response to Hurricane Katrina plan to meet Thursday with Michael P. Jackson, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the secretary’s chief of staff, John Wood, as part of an ongoing investigation into what went wrong.
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By Caitlin Harrington, CQ Staff

Freshmen at public universities in Illinois will be able to enroll in a homeland security class and win scholarships if they are interested in pursuing a major in the field.

Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich said Monday he will give $75,000 to Northern Illinois University to develop a core homeland security studies course. The course will be available on the Internet to students at all Illinois state universities.
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By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff

Urban areas eligible to receive Department of Homeland Security (DHS) anti-terrorism dollars are trying to make sense of the department’s new grant rules so they can submit applications by March 2.

The clock is ticking to apply for a slice of the $765 million, and 60 days is not much time to establish a regional governing board to decide how to spend the coveted funds, local officials say. To receive funds, officials in these 35 pre-determined regions must submit to DHS applications that demonstrate where the money would go and why it is needed.
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By Benton Ives-Halperin, CQ Staff

Some security experts say the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should make critical infrastructure resiliency one of the agency’s strategic goals. A move toward emphasizing resiliency could be a policy shift for homeland security officials. Broadly defined as a system’s ability to bend in the face of an attack or a natural disaster rather than failing rapidly and catastrophically, resiliency also means that in the event of a failure, the system would degrade gracefully.
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By Benton Ives-Halperin, CQ Staff

For terrorists hoping to wreak economic havoc, importing an agricultural scourge like hoof-and-mouth disease could be an effective strategy. The loss of billions of export dollars after the 2003 mad cow outbreak in Washington state shows how outbreaks can dramatically disrupt the nation’s agriculture business. States like Pennsylvania have spent millions to protect food supplies against terrorism. But some food safety experts say more federal help is needed to monitor the nation’s food stocks.
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By Patrick Yoest, CQ Staff

This much is clear: Las Vegas was excluded last week from a list of cities designated as “high threat” for Homeland Security grants. But a conversation between Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff about the city’s snub remains veiled in uncertainty.
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By Jacob Freedman, CQ Staff

The House cleared a two-year extension of a federal terrorism insurance program after more than a year of intense lobbying by business groups. The president signed the measure into law Dec. 22, nine days before the original program’s Dec. 31 expiration date.

In November 2002, Congress cleared the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (PL 107-297), or TRIA, which created a three-year program to help stabilize the commercial property and casualty insurance markets following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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By Alex Wayne, CQ Staff

In a late-session addition to its agenda, the House passed a bill intended to strengthen border security and force businesses to check the immigration status of their employees. But lawmakers, especially in the Senate, are deeply divided over whether immigration legislation should focus on deterring illegal immigration or on making it easier for those currently in the country to gain legal status, making it difficult for legislation to be completed in 2006.
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By Tim Starks, CQ Staff

The House in May passed the first-ever reauthorization bill for the Department of Homeland Security, but the committee responsible for the legislation in the Senate pushed consideration to 2006 because it was preoccupied with an investigation into the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

The force behind passage of the reauthorization bill in the House was Christopher Cox, R-Calif., who chaired the Homeland Security Committee until Aug. 2, when he resigned to become chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Among other aims, his bill sought to strengthen the department’s intelligence wing, refine the color-coded threat-alert system and authorize the hiring of new agents to guard the border.
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By Tim Starks, CQ Staff

Congress cleared a $31.9 billion fiscal 2006 Homeland Security spending bill in October after appropriators resolved disputes over spending for the Coast Guard’s fleet modernization program and other issues that prevented a deal prior to the August recess.

Republicans said they wrote a “threat-based bill” focused on the top priorities: border security and preparing for the danger of weapons of mass destruction.
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By Patrick Yoest, CQ Staff

Privacy issues in homeland security loomed large as 2005 came to a close. Fierce debate over the government’s collection of private information will keep those issues from dissipating in the new year, and likely for years to come.

Most prominently, the Department of Homeland Security’s airline passenger screening program — Secure Flight — had another rocky year. But Capitol Hill’s growing discontent with the executive branch’s assumption of broad surveillance powers may signal the beginning of a wide-ranging debate, with civil libertarians challenging the integrity of programs intended to stymie — or, in the case of DHS programs, root out — potential terrorists.
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By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday it will award $765 million in anti-terrorism grants this year to high-risk urban areas that can prove they will spend the money wisely.

The fiscal 2006 Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grants will go to more than 95 cities in 35 urban areas across the country. Until now, the money has gone only to cities, as opposed to regions.
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