Protecting the Front Lines

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As New Yorkers, we know first hand about how heroes on the front lines of homeland security risked their own lives to save thousands of others on 9/11. If terrorists strike our country again, Americans will call their local firefighters and police, not the Department of Homeland Security. This makes it imperative that our front-line homeland security workers have everything they need to defend against, prepare for, and protect us from future terrorist attacks.
The first major effort of the Homeland Security Task Force, which I chaired in the 108th Congress, was to assess preparedness at the ground level - are they getting everything they need from the federal government to be prepared for terrorist attacks? In June 2004, I convened a task force hearing in Washington that included firefighters, police officers, local officials, and emergency management coordinators from across our country. Their first-hand accounts were a wake-up call to many who had yet to hear about serious security deficiencies directly from those working to protect America. Some said federal funding assistance was inadequate. Others said providing adequate security has caused local governments to shift resources away from other areas, such as education. The witnesses were nearly unanimous in their belief that the federal government can do much more for hometown security. I followed the hearing with a survey to a broader sample of emergency responders and local officials. I coordinated with my colleagues in distributing the survey in our hometowns and compiled a national report that was released in the fall. The results clearly showed that the federal government must change its approach toward local homeland security assistance. A mere 16% of respondents said the federal government is doing all it can, 56% said that communication and coordination with the federal government is adequate, while 87% said they did not have adequate funding for homeland security needs. The front lines of homeland security are not only in our hometowns - they are also in the skies, at the borders, and in the ports. One group that gained much publicity for its resurgence after 9/11 but which faced bureaucratic hardship with the potential to affect job performance is the Federal Air Marshals (FAM). We saw reports that the Transportation Security Administration planned to remove air marshals from a number of high-threat flights to save on hotel costs. I immediately criticized the move and the decision was reversed in the midst of a firestorm of criticism. I also requested a congressional investigation from the House Select Committee on Homeland Security into how the decision was made, and I wrote to former Secretary Tom Ridge out of concern that FAM training cutbacks were still in the works. After this episode, the FAM service went on a witch hunt within its own ranks to determine the source of the news stories about air marshals being removed from flights. I defended the patriotic air marshals who brought TSA's dangerous decision to cut back on air marshals and requested investigations by the Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees. Additionally, FAM officials chose to allow NBC News to observe and broadcast the air marshals' procedures boarding and protecting airliners. Air marshals and the association that represents many of them fear that allowing such sensitive information to be made public compromises airline security. I shared those fears, and requested a Department of Homeland Security Inspector General investigation into the decision-making process among FAM officials that led to stories such as the NBC News reports.