Center of Excellence

Chris Strohm,
CONGRESS DAILY
Homeland Security Department officials are doing a complete evaluation of government policies for information-sharing, handling watch-list alerts and having trained medical personnel at major ports of entry after a 31-year-old lawyer from Atlanta was able to come across the border from Canada this week with a dangerous form of tuberculosis.
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Chris Strohm,
CONGRESS DAILY
Former Border Patrol chiefs and agents on Monday ripped the Senate’s immigration bill as being unrealistic and technologically unfeasible, and instead offered a six-part plan for increasing border security, removing illegal immigrants and overhauling the immigration system.
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Michael Martinez,
NATIONAL JOURNAL’S TECHNOLOGY DAILY
Commerce Department officials on Monday outlined how a federal grant program for public safety communications will be implemented.
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CONGRESS DAILY
The House Appropriations Committee plans to report the first four fiscal 2008 spending bills to the floor next week, totaling $160 billion in spending on a broad array of programs including homeland security, veterans’ health, military housing, natural resources and the environment, nuclear programs, renewable fuels research and water projects.
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Chris Strohm,
CONGRESS DAILY
Two key senators said last week it would be a terrible mistake for Congress to take up legislation again that would remove the Federal Emergency Management Agency from the Homeland Security Department, saying reforms passed into law last year are showing improvements in the government’s ability to deal with disasters.
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Chris Strohm,
CONGRESS DAILY
The House Homeland Security Committee plans to mark up a bill quickly after this week’s recess to authorize a massive new bio-defense facility, paving the way for a high-stakes competition that some believe will bring billions of dollars in jobs and commerce to the winning congressional districts.
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Keith Koffler,
CONGRESS DAILY
President Bush last week sharpened his political rhetoric against critics of the administration-backed Senate immigration legislation, blasting them for seeking to scare people about the bill and encouraging the political courage needed to pass it.
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NATIONAL JOURNAL’S TECHNOLOTY DAILY
The Homeland Security Department’s privacy office has made significant progress in carrying out its statutory responsibilities but more work remains, a Government Accountability Office report released last week said.
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Chris Strohm,
CONGRESS DAILY
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded nearly 4,000 no-bid contracts, prompting House appropriators to seek explanations and to write legislation that would require competition for most contracts in the future.
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Brittany R. Ballenstedt
The Homeland Security Department should build on its personnel reforms by beginning to implement the pay-for-performance and job classification portions, the Office of Personnel Management argues in a new report.
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Chris Strohm,
NATIONAL JOURNAL’S TECHNOLOGY DAILY
Two key senators from northern states have introduced legislation that would prevent new border security requirements from going into place until the Homeland Security Department evaluates ways to make implementation easier for U.S. citizens traveling to and from Canada.
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Daniel Pulliam
The Customs and Border Protection agency has failed to inform the public how personal information collected from international travelers is being used, as required by law, according to a new study.
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Bob Brewin
The National Security Agency is working to open classified Defense Department communications networks to key allies, a move that the U.S. intelligence community has resisted for years, according to an internal NSA briefing presentation obtained by Government Executive.
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Brittany R. Ballenstedt
Adequate funding and broader use of technology are essential to improving the process of screening security clearance applicants, government officials told lawmakers Thursday.
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Daniel Pulliam
The winning proposal for the General Services Administration’s $66 million contract for managing employee identification cards failed to comply with the technical requirements of a governmentwide mandate, according to protests filed with the Government Accountability Office.
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Chris Strohm,
NATIONAL JOURNAL’S TECHNOLOGY DAILY
House appropriators on Friday approved a measure to fund the Homeland Security Department next fiscal year, voting to boost spending for state and local grant programs and cut funds for the Coast Guard’s troubled fleet-modernization program.
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Amelia Gruber,
A labor relations board on Thursday issued a decision allowing the certification of the National Treasury Employees Union as the sole representative of about 21,000 Homeland Security Department employees.
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National Journal’s Tecnology Daily
The Homeland Security Department on Monday announced the completion of 17-sector specific plans to support a national infrastructure protection plan.
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Jenny Mandel,
Federal small business contracting is never as simple as it seems. That was the lesson the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy learned with the publication of a new report on how small firms fare in outsourcing contests.
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Amelia Gruber
A labor relations board on Thursday issued a decision allowing the certification of the National Treasury Employees Union as the sole representative of about 21,000 Homeland Security Department employees. The full Federal Labor Relations Authority rejected a petition to review a regional office’s decision that upheld the results of a June 2006 election on representation of non-Border Patrol employees within DHS’ Customs and Border Protection bureau.
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