Adfero Group HSPI

Congress has been so preoccupied debating the STD reduction and smoking cessation components of the stimulus package that they have failed to notice the gaping whole in the legislation. It’s time to belly up at the bar and take real action. Invest in jobs, the future, the environment, healthcare, security and the economy – all at the same time. How? By fixing our nation’s decrepit infrastructure. Not $800 billion worth, all of it! It’s the best $2.2 trillion you’ll ever spend.

There is plenty of opportunity for the vast majority of government agencies to benefit from Web 2.0 techniques and authentically engage the public. Federal blogging advocates must overcome institutional slowness and resistance to change. Web 2.0 is quick, honest and real.

The Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review (QRM) offered a unique opportunity for the Defense Department to further our strategic priorities by assessing responsibilities of individual components and evaluating improvements to the way we do business across our enterprise.

From the moment we first stood up DHS, the entire leadership made the case and operated under the principle that a successful homeland security model required a true partnership with the private sector. That meant going beyond simple advisory committees but developing programs in which the government and private sector could work together, as well as acknowledging that — with more than 80 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure being owned by the private sector — those outside of government had just as much at stake and spent just as much time looking for solutions to protect that infrastructure.

Last week, the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) released their report card on America’s infrastructure. We got a big fat D. Years of neglect, inattention, over use, lack of resources and more have left us sailing along in a leaky boat with a semi-operable engine in stormy economic seas.

Coastal shipping should be thought of in a preparedness and recovery context. Similar to the maritime evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11, an American Dunkirk, or how coastal shipping helped get the Gulf coast going again after Katrina (after the Jones Act was temporarily suspended), rebuilding America’s maritime infrastructure would bring intangible yet critically valuable security benefits.

As the honeymoon period for the new Administration fades, so too does the ability to avoid the proverbial third rail called immigration. The decision to further postpone implementation of the E-Verify rule marks one of the first decisions regarding immigration that the Obama Administration has taken.