A Missed Opportunity

Tomorrow our nation will mark the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Since that time, there have been no successful attacks on our homeland. Common sense suggests that the terrorists did not suddenly and inexplicably lose interest in striking us again. Indeed, our government has helped disrupt a number of plots including the one uncovered two summers ago to hijack transatlantic airliners in London.

Yet in a just-released report on our progress since 9/11, the House’s Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs Committees paint an unrecognizable portrait of where we stand today. Contrary to the report’s assertions, the Department’s employees have worked tirelessly to implement over 250 distinct requirements in the ‘9/11 Recommendations Act,’ as well as hundreds of requirements in other laws.

Just over a year after enactment, the Department has made substantial progress implementing the legislative requirements, and often in the face of inconsistent or unclear congressional priorities. The report is littered with a host of egregious and embarrassing errors. To cite but a few examples:

• The report states that the Department has made “no progress” with respect to section 1701, which mandates scanning in foreign ports for U.S.-bound cargo. In fact, DHS has deployed scanning systems in multiple foreign ports and thus far has met every obligation and deadline in section 1701. The numerous businesses, foreign governments, and departmental components involved in and affected by the deployed scanning systems strongly rebut the claim of “no progress.”
• The report states that there has been “little progress” with respect to Section 1101, which requires an operational National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) by September 30, 2008. In fact, NBIC is now operational, fully satisfies the statutory requirements, and recently disseminated a report on a salmonella outbreak.
• The report states that regarding Section 711, which modernizes the Visa Waiver Program, “initial steps have been taken but significant implementation challenges remain.” In fact, virtually all of the major implementation challenges have been addressed, and DHS has not missed any statutory deadlines. Moreover, DHS already has realized substantial security gains – in particular, increased information-sharing with foreign partners – as a result of efforts undertaken in accordance with section 711. (More on the work of our Department and its people.)
  

In addition to the numerous errors in the report, of which the examples above are merely illustrative, many of the statements in the report actually rebut the report’s assertion that the “Administration has ignored the law.”

With respect to Section 1001, which requires the establishment and use of a prioritized list of critical infrastructure, the report acknowledges that “…DHS provided Congress with the list of prioritized critical infrastructure and, thus, fulfilled that requirement of Section 1001.” The report goes on to assert, illogically and incorrectly, that DHS does not use this list.

Finally, it is unfortunate that the report ignores Congress’s failure to implement one of the most important recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. That bipartisan body recommended that Congress “create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security.” With more than 80 committees and subcommittees often imposing inconsistent obligations on DHS, Congress has made it exceedingly difficult to prioritize tasks in a manner that best reduces overall risk to the country. While the Department’s employees work to implement the 250+ requirements of the 9/11 Recommendations Act, on top of the hundreds of pre-existing legal obligations, Congress would do well to heed the one recommendation directed toward reducing the fragmented congressional oversight.

On this solemn anniversary, the Committee has squandered a genuine opportunity to commend the brave men and women of this Department, the intelligence community, first responders, and law enforcement nationwide, for their outstanding job in protecting the homeland. In sum, the 218,000 dedicated members of this Department will continue to serve this nation with honor and distinction, and we who are privileged to lead them will continue our efforts to work with Congress on behalf of our homeland and its people.

Paul A. Schneider
Deputy Secretary